Sunderland chairman Stewart Donald knows the challenges that lie ahead this summer as the club look to respond to last Sunday’s Play-Off heartache.
The Black Cats’ hopes of promotion were dashed as Charlton Athletic netted a 95th minute winner at Wembley to book their place in the Sky Bet Championship.
That’s left the club with the fate of spending another year in the third tier of English football, a result and feeling that’s left Donald determined to put right.
Speaking to safc.com earlier this week, the Black Cats’ chairman outlined the work that needs to be done behind the scenes this summer to ensure the club has the best chance possible to achieve promotion in the 2019-20 campaign.
“The sun has risen and it’s a new day,” he said. “We have got to get ourselves back into the Championship next season.
“It’s about getting ourselves into a position where we are a team that got 85 points last season to a team that gets 100 points next season.
“Then we can be certain we will have good season and a promotion at the end of it because this club needs to be promoted out of league one.
“It would’ve been great to have done it this year but it’s a bit of a harder ask than some realised. Even so, it was still very much possible and the fact we haven’t done it is gutting.
“I watched Charlton celebrate in full on Sunday so I could really feel the absolutely worst I could so that can spur me on so I don’t feel like that again,” he continued.
“We can’t have that again so there’s a lot of hard work to do so we can build on next year.”
