🚨EXCLUSIVE :Sunderland thought they had their own Alan Shearer, now he’s without a club

Sunderland fans will already be tentatively dreaming of a return to the Premier League as the first days of Regis Le Bri’s new regime have already brought the feel-good factor back to the Stadium of Light.

   That’s the case after the Black Cats surprisingly lost 3-2 to Plymouth Argyle in the Championship last time out, but the Wearside outfit will still be happy with their second place in the league, having only finished a paltry 16th.  season.

   Should Le Bris achieve the incredible promotion, it would be the first time Sunderland have competed at the top flight of English football since 2016/17, when the Black Cats finished bottom of the table.

   Around the same dismal time in the club’s recent history, there have been a number of failed transfers, including the deal to sign Conor Wickham, who never quite lived up to any of the unusual labels placed on his head when he pulled on a Sunderland shirt.

   Wickham’s move to Sunderland

   Touted as the next big thing, Wickham joined Sunderland in 2011, having admired his boyhood club Ipswich Town from an early age.

   A much younger and rawer Wickham compared to the 31-year-old in the here and now, would rack up nine goals in 37 Championship games in his final campaign at Portman Road before securing a £12million move to the Stadium of Light.

   However, he never really fitted in at Sunderland, falling just shy of winning the EFL Young Player of the Year award while in more comfortable surroundings in Suffolk, with outrageous accolades handed to him during his difficult spell with the Black Cats  , which did not help him.    .

   In 2014, after scoring just six goals on Wearside in three seasons across three Premier League campaigns, former Sunderland great Niall Quinn even went so far as to say that Wickham could become ‘Sunderland’s Alan Shearer’ despite his past struggles  .

   A rare purple spot – which saw him score five goals in three games during the 2013/14 campaign – saw the one-time Tractor Boys prodigy pick up a single Premier League player of the month award, but his inconsistent performances took precedence.  him again after that.

   He left his playing days with the Black Cats with a poor tally of 15 goals in 91 games before later proving himself for other top EFL teams and clubs such as Crystal Palace and Sheffield Wednesday.

   Now the 31-year-old striker has found himself without a club, with the prospect of retirement ever-increasing.

   Wickham’s career since Sunderland

   It’s fair to say that the former Ipswich prodigy never managed to reach the level expected of him when he first burst onto the scene at Portman Road, with the injury-prone centre-forward following his time at Sunderland  , became a kind of traveler.  .

   Wickham would even go on to play all the way up to League One with Milton Keynes Dons, Charlton Athletic and Forest Green Rovers after leaving Sunderland, but never quite hit the ground running for any of his new employers, who tried to get a point on the former England U21 star.

   Wickham’s goalscoring record after Sunderland

   The club played for

   Games played

   Made goals

   The Crystal Palace

   50

   11

   Sheffield Wednesday

   30

   11

   Preston North End

   2

   0

   MK Dons

   15

   1

   Forest green

   20

   9

   Charlton

   4

   1

   Cardiff City

   12

   1

   It comes from Transfermarkt

   Looking at the table above, Wickham struggled to keep the club and his last step in football was at Cardiff City, where he managed just one goal in 12 memorable appearances.

   Wickham will look back on his career and wonder what could have been different, with his miserable run of injuries not exactly helping matters, but the insane hype that surrounded him from such an early age must have had its major downsides.

   He scored a notable goal for Forest Green during his time there (above), but Wickham would like to see him score goals like this regularly in the top flight to try and somehow live up to his billing as a Sunderland property.    hair clipper.