Former Manchester United midfielder Darron Gibson hit the headlines this weekend following Sunderland's pathetic 5-0 pre-season defeat to Celtic.

The Mackems were relegated from the Premier League last season after racking up just 24 points under David Moyes.

Sunderland's Championship campaign begins on Friday night as they welcome Derby County to the Stadium of Light.

Ex-Preston manager Simon Grayson has replaced Moyes at the helm but the club is in dire need of an overhaul if they are to stop the rot.

Irish midfielder Gibson, 29, joined Sunderland from Everton in January 2017 and also believes a revamp is necessary - although didn't manage to put it quite so eloquently.

Filmed drinking after the club's embarrassing 5-0 defeat to Celtic, Gibson went on a shocking rant about his "f***ing s***" teammates.

“We’re f***ing s***,” he said, before being asked whether that bothered him. “Of course I am [bothered]. I don’t want to be s***. There are too many people are the club who don’t give a f***.”

Asked which players he was referring to, he replied: “You tell me”, and appeared to suggest that Lamine Koné, Jeremain Lens and Wahbi Khazri were among those not pulling their weight for the club.

Gibson responded, “Right, there’s one,” when the name of Koné was put to him; when Lens and Khazri were mentioned he responded “Next one” on both occasions.

When it was put to Gibson that drinking after a heavy defeat did not necessarily present the most committed picture, he said: “Right, I might be off my face in here but I still want to play for Sunderland. The rest of them f***ing don’t though, the rest of them don’t.”

Sunderland's downward spiral is showing no sign of coming to an end and few would be surprised if they were to find themselves in League One next season.

It's hard to argue with Gibson's derogative comments about his teammates but it will only serve to add to the toxic atmosphere at the club.

Training on Monday morning was probably a rather awkward affair.