But Allardyce – who has another year on his contract – does not want a repeat next season and will be looking to make the changes over the summer to make Sunderland into a more formidable team.
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One last hurdle for Sunderland to overcome (3:00 p.m UK Time).
“The challenge of the foreign managers made us better over the years, there is no doubt about that, but the way it is going, I can see no English manager in the Premier League and that could be very shortly as well”.
Sunderland has significantly improved its defensive performance and allowed an average of one goal per match in the last two months.
“We have to make sure we go into next season, build on this and don’t start the way we have done the last few years”.
The Black Cats spent more time in the bottom three than anyone other than Aston Villa this season, but, for the fourth season in a row, have survived with just a game to spare. Superstitious punters will tell you that an invisible hand protects this team from relegation and given their recent results it’s hard to argue against this theory.
“It was very important for Watford’s future to stay in the Premier League”.
Sunderland twice took the lead at Vicarage Road, through Jack Rodwell in the 39th minute and Jeremain Lens in the 51st.
Quique Sanchez Flores believes his work at Watford is complete and predicts his successor will have a much easier job next season.
“We’d like to get in players as quickly as we can, but the difficulty of doing things early doors is the Euro’s”, said Allardyce.
“We’re really glad that those major decisions, which we had no control over, have not affected our status in this league”.
Referee Kevin Friend said: “At this stage of the season, it’s impossible to get anyone to concentrate”.
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“Watford played a full strength side and we only had a couple of players that have been involved in our last seven games”.
