OPINION
It was a season to forget for Sunderland during the recently concluded campaign when they finished bottom of the Premier League table and suffered relegation to the Championship.
It is a feeling Aston Villa will be too familiar with after they went through the same pain and suffering during the 2015/16 season.
Now, both teams will be locking horns in the second tier of English football next term as they bid to make a return to the top tier of English football.
One player that is expected to take to the field for the Black Cats next season is their experienced and hard-hitting midfielder Lee Cattermole.
The 29-year-old only played eight Premier League matches for the north east club during the previous campaign with an injury keeping him on the sidelines.
Cattermole is a player Steve Bruce should look to bring in at Aston Villa this summer because he would add a cutting edge and an extra bite to the club’s midfield.
With Villa contending with financial fair play, someone like Cattermole would not cost big money for the club, so they would not have much to lose if they were to make a move for the player.
Cattermole has vasts amounts of experience in England’s top flight and he can take a game by the scruff of its neck if need be.
That is something Villa need in the middle of the park alongside Jedinak because the duo would add that bite in the midfield which would allow others to get forward and express themselves.