Former Newcastle United boss Graeme Souness has defended Alex Neil's decision to swap Sunderland for Stoke City.
Neil was confirmed as Stoke's new manager on Sunday after just seven months in charge at the Stadium of Light. On Friday, Sunderland gave Neil permission to speak to the Potters and he watched their win over Blackburn Rovers from the stands a day later.
The 41-year-old enjoyed a successful spell in charge of the Black Cats, leading them to the Championship via a play-off final win at Wembley, but the manner of his exit left a sour taste in the mouth of Sunderland followers.
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Souness believes Sunderland's strategy of signing young players to develop is to blame for Neil leaving to join Sunderland's Championship rivals.
"It is a strange one," Souness told talkSPORT. "He'd got Sunderland going in the right direction and he's taken over a club who were at the bottom.
"I think this stat tells you everything you need to know about Alex Neil's decision. They've signed 23 players, Sunderland, since the new people have taken over the football club. Four of the 23 were over 25 and they didn't pay any money for them.
"The rest were all under 25. They're looking for nirvana, I think. They've taken a football club and they're saying we're going to buy young, promising players, develop them, sell some of them and then progress as a football club both on the park and financially. That's nirvana. That would be very, very hard to achieve.
"I think going to Stoke and the owners they have - yes, I'm sure it's important to him that he's going to double his own salary - importantly, they will support him in the transfer window by not buying young players.
"I think he has gone to a club who will support him in the transfer market and he's not developing players for the next manager, which he was being asked to do at Sunderland."
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