Former Sunderland defender can see what wily Xhaka brings to the club

“Ralf Rangnick was their manager at the time, but I decided I didn’t want to play in Germany anymore. Sunderland came in relatively late. | flew there, looked at it and instantly made the decision to try it out.”

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Helmer, pictured, was used sparingly by Reid after signing, with the German international admitting the club thought he was a midfielder, rather than a defender.

“To be honest, I was very surprised,” he continued. “I have never trained as little as we did at Sunderland. We hardly had sessions, not even in preparation for matches. It also turned out, they actually thought | was a midfielder.