{"id":595569,"date":"2021-07-09T11:09:19","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T15:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=595569"},"modified":"2021-07-09T11:09:19","modified_gmt":"2021-07-09T15:09:19","slug":"sunderland-sign-midfielder-alex-pritchard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/07\/09\/sunderland-sign-midfielder-alex-pritchard\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunderland Sign Former Huddersfield Town Midfielder Alex Pritchard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/07\/06\/luke-onien-sunderland-contract\/\" target=\"_self\">Sunderland<\/a> have completed the signing of former <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/02\/24\/yaya-sanogo-completes-huddersfield-town-move\/\" target=\"_self\">Huddersfield Town<\/a> midfielder Alex Pritchard. The 28-year-old has signed for the Black Cats on a free transfer following his release by the Championship side. Pritchard becomes Lee Johnson&#8217;s first signing of the summer as he looks to rebuild his squad ready for next season&#8217;s promotion challenge.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/footballleagueworld.co.uk\/sources-sunderland-on-verge-of-signing-28-y-o-as-he-rejects-offer-from-elsewhere\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reports<\/a>, Pritchard turned down offers from Championship clubs and German side VFL Bochum to sign for Sunderland.\u00a0The deal was announced via the club&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/safc.com\/news\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">official website<\/a> and Twitter account.<\/p>\n<h2>Midfielder Alex Pritchard Signs for Sunderland<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud83e\udd41 \ud835\udde2\ud835\ude02\ud835\uddff \ud835\uddf3\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddff\ud835\ude00\ud835\ude01 \ud835\ude00\ud835\ude02\ud835\uddfa\ud835\uddfa\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddff \ud835\ude00\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddf4\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf4&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Introducing, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pritch_93?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Pritch_93<\/a> \u270d\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SunderlandAFC\/status\/1413513464467922952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 9, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Star Performer to Disappointing Spell at Huddersfield Town<\/h3>\n<p>Midfielder Alex Pritchard signed for the Terriers in January of 2018 for a reported fee of \u00a311 million from <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/norwich-city\/\" target=\"_self\">Norwich City<\/a>. He would go on to play 83 times for the club in the Premier League and the Championship but fell out of favour last season when he featured just 19 times.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to this, Pritchard had been a star performer for Norwich and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/05\/29\/ivan-toney-brentford-championship\/\" target=\"_self\">Brentford<\/a> after leaving <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/tottenham\/\" target=\"_self\">Tottenham Hotspur<\/a>. It was these performances that prompted Huddersfield, then a Premier League club to spend \u00a311 million to capture his services.<\/p>\n<p>Despite helping the Terriers stay in the Premier League, it has been reported that the Huddersfield former owner David Hoyle admitted that he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.examinerlive.co.uk\/sport\/football\/news\/huddersfield-town-alex-pritchard-webber-20525170\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">overspent on the player<\/a> despite securing their place in England&#8217;s top flight with Pritchard in the team. Something which the player has commented on plus his time at the club. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.examinerlive.co.uk\/sport\/football\/news\/sunderland-move-huddersfield-town-flop-20979968\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">He said<\/a>: \u201cI thought I\u2019d done well enough in those first games to return to the side, but I didn\u2019t. Then it went on; you\u2019re not playing, not playing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t have the season I wanted but did I really get the chance to show what I was about? Probably not. Did I cut it? Probably not. And when people say, \u2018You\u2019re injury-prone\u2019\u2026 I wasn\u2019t. I was fit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201dYou all move on but I\u2019ve seen things like someone saying, \u2018We overpaid for Pritchard\u2019. OK, that\u2019s not my problem. That was what you did.\u00a0I came in the January, you ended up staying in the league and you earned whatever you earned (from being a Premier League club again). I bet you didn\u2019t say anything about how much I cost then.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter you\u2019ve stayed up, did you invest enough? I don\u2019t know. That\u2019s just opinions but because it didn\u2019t work out, why did you have to say you overpaid?\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>A New Start for Midfielder Alex Pritchard<\/h3>\n<p>New <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/06\/30\/aiden-mcgeady-sunderland-contract\/\" target=\"_self\">Sunderland<\/a> signing Alex Pritchard expressed his delight at having signed for the Black Cats and is looking forward to the new season. Following his departure from Huddersfield, he will no doubt be wanting to show what he can do.<\/p>\n<p>He told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.safc.com\/news\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">safc.com<\/a>: \u201cIt\u2019s great to be here and it\u2019s another good opportunity for me on the football road, so I\u2019m ready to get going. There were other offers out there, but it\u2019s crucial for me to be with a Head Coach that knows me as a player, and as a person, and has a playing style that suits me. The club speaks for itself \u2013 you see the stadium, the training ground, the fans \u2013 and I just think this could be a great fit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"zBKB-XBSTtx5NsCkaQn99w\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1294265655\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'zBKB-XBSTtx5NsCkaQn99w',sig:'XD882DMuqASJ3PWErpOB_1jd1TrD7BqDHiT4hp8ePQI=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1294265655',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sunderland have today completed the signing of midfielder Alex Pritchard. He signs on a free transfer after leaving Huddersfield Town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":595796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,33,1266,1369,28],"tags":[1683],"class_list":["post-595569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-football","category-championship","category-huddersfield-town","category-sunderland-league-football","category-transfers","tag-alex-pritchard"],"modified_by":"Tom Cunningham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}