Former Sunderland manager Paolo Di Canio has no doubts that he deserved more time at the club prior to his sacking.

The Italian was fired by the Black Cats earlier this month, after his side had picked up just one point from their opening five Premier League matches of the season.

However, Di Canio feels that his time was cut short considering he helped Sunderland avoid relegation last term as well as bringing in a whole host of new players during the summer.

"When I joined the club last season with the aim of saving them from relegation I was happy to be offered the opportunity to manage in the Premier League," Di Canio said in a statement. "I walked into a challenging situation but achieved what I was asked to do, the highlight of which was the fantastic performance and win against Newcastle, which is something I will always remember.

"When you bring in 14 new players, many from overseas and very few with Premiership experience it is going to take time for them to adapt to the English game and to gel as a team. As I have said many times, I love English football and I feel that my time at the club has been unfairly cut short as given the chance, I am certain that had I been allowed longer, I would have been able to develop the team to achieve the success Sunderland fans desire.

"There has been a lot written in the media in recent days, much of it wholly untrue. There was no training ground bust-up as some are reporting and many of the players have since sent me messages thanking me for my time as their manager and helping them to improve as footballers. We could see that results had not gone as well as any of us had hoped, but I felt as a team we could turn things around."

Kevin Ball has currently been placed in caretaker charge of the club.