Black future for Sunderland squad if relegated - Allardyce
REUTERS - Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce has warned the bulk of his squad their careers may never hit the same heights if the club are relegated from the Premier League.
Third-from-bottom Sunderland have six games left to avoid the drop to the Championship (second tier) starting with Saturday's trip to Norwich City, who sit four points ahead of the Black Cats but having played a game more.
"Most of the players will never get a better club than this one... If they moved on, I don't think even Wahbi Khazri, Lamine Kone and Jan Kirchhoff would step up from Sunderland," Allardyce told British media.
"I can't see many of the lads getting a better or bigger club than this one, so their big challenge is to stay in the Premier League."
Allardyce said it would hurt if he lost his record of never suffering relegation from the English top-flight but feared the damage would be worse for the club and squad if they did go down.
"I've had a fantastic career and I would be disappointed to have that one relegation on my CV. It would hurt, yes, but it's more important for the club than it is for me," said the former Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United, West Ham United and Bolton Wanderers boss.
"It would hurt this club immensely if they got relegated. I think survival is more important for the players than it is for me."
(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru. Editing by Patrick Johnston)