Simon Grayson insists Sunderland would not be in today's Wembley play-off final versus Charlton if they had stuck with him - because they would never have dropped into League One.
Grayson, 49, was identified as one of English football's brightest young managers when recruited from Preston two summers ago, having won four promotions from the third tier.
Yet he was given just 15 league matches on Wearside by the former hierarchy before being dispensed with in October 2017, with the club third from bottom in the Championship.
Simon Grayson insists Sunderland would not have been relegated had they stuck with him
'I'd had a good 11 years or so of success all the way along the line. Yes, I'd been sacked a couple of times - at Huddersfield and Leeds. But I'd left both clubs in a better state than when I walked in,' Grayson told the Mail on Sunday.
'I'd had other opportunities to go elsewhere but I was enjoying myself and I was on the cusp of good things at Preston. I had a really good young squad.
'The time I decided to leave was when a big club like Sunderland came knocking. I just felt it was too good an opportunity to turn down. As an ex-Premier League club, even though they were in trouble, I felt I could keep them on the right track.
After missing out on automatic promotion Sunderland will face Charlton in the play-off final
Sunderland fans took to Trafalgar Square in their masses on Saturday afternoon
'The proof was in the pudding, I suppose, that two good managers in myself and Chris Coleman, who did well with Wales, were unable to stop the ship sinking.
'Sunderland had been on a downward spiral for a number of years, kept surviving on the last few weeks of the season, and eventually that catches up with you.
'Anybody that only gets 15 games does not have time to instil their own ideas, plus there was uncertainty right up until the end of August on who was staying and who was leaving. Even then there were players there - who
