Alex Pritchard leaving Sunderland re-ignites one lingering concern: View | OneFootball

Alex Pritchard's two-and-a-half year stay at Sunderland ended on deadline day, with the midfielder moving to Championship rivals Birmingham City.

After departing Huddersfield Town in 2021, Sunderland completed the ambitious signing of Pritchard on a free transfer in July of that year, despite being a League One side.

He helped the Black Cats gain promotion during his first season with the club, featuring 45 times under Lee Johnson and Alex Neil that season, and has continued to contribute on Wearside ever since.

However, with just six months left on the playmaker's deal in January, there was always a decent chance he could leave the club for a new challenge, with the 30-year-old moving to join Blues on the final day of the window.

Pritchard re-unites with Tony Mowbray at Birmingham

Birmingham now have former Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray in charge, and had continued to be linked with a move for Pritchard frequently throughout January.

According to The Telegraph journalist Mike McGrath, MLS side Colorado Rapids were also keen on Pritchard, while Turkish reporter Ertan Süzgün claims that Sivasspor had made him an official offer.

Alan Nixon then stated that the Black Cats were keen to offload him as quickly as possible following a transfer request, and Birmingham risked missing out on him if they didn't make a move for him this month because of that.

This may be the reason why Mowbray's side have made a move to sign him, and, after some back and forth, a £100,000 deal was eventually agreed.

A two-and-a-half year deal was accepted, with Pritchard reportedly set to secure a sizable pay rise as part of that.

Speaking after joining Birmingham, Pritchard expressed his satisfaction at getting the deal done, saying: "I am happy. My future has been well speculated for a while now and I am just glad to get everything done and just settled and, hopefully, I can just crack on with football."

It has left Sunderland with a potential problem that they may wish to overcome in the coming transfer windows, but it could also be an issue for Michael Beale for the remainder of this season, too.

Sunderland's lack of experience is telling once more

The acquisitions of players such as Jobe Bellingham have been well-documented on Wearside, in terms of the long-term ambitions of the club.

The majority of their signings are aged 21 and under, and have helped to add continuity and progression to the sustainable, forward-thinking model that has been put into place.

They tend to lean on players they can develop with plenty of resale value, which someone like Pritchard does not fit the mould of, but he has something vital to any dressing room: experience.

Of course, they may also lack his ability to change a game and his creative spark, but it is that factor which is so often levelled at Sunderland which should be the biggest miss.

Sunderland offered him fresh terms, but could not compete with the contract offer from Mowbray's side, whilst Mowbray had been keen to add more experience to the youthful squad at his disposal in the summer whilst still at Sunderland.

They had the youngest squad by average age in the Championship last season, and that has unsurprisingly continued this season.

However, they are seemingly not strongly minded to add more seniority to the current set up, or to make too much effort to retain the older players within the squad, either.

Sunderland only have four players over the age of 25 in their squad currently: Patrick Roberts (26), Luke O'Nien (29), Bradley Dack (30), and Corry Evans (33).

Pritchard was not only one of the most senior and experienced players, but also a leader, which Mowbray was right to want at Sunderland, as it is vitally important to have those characters around what is such a young group of players.

Perhaps it is an aspect for the club to consider how to balance better heading into future windows, but during a play-off and promotion push this season when the crunch games come at the back end of the campaign, having those older heads to lean on can be crucial.

It could be a big difference-maker, but the club have allowed players such as Pritchard and Danny Batth to leave in the last six months, which could be a huge mistake and oversight come the end of the season, should they fail to achieve their goal in the league.