Speaking in the summer window, sporting director Kristjaan Speakman outlined our ‘evidence based’ recruitment model, a brand-new strategy in which the old school approach becomes redundant. Instead of short-termism, Speakman instead favoured a ‘long term project’ – we might have to be patient because ‘to change the philosophy of the club and hopefully its fortunes and trajectory along with it, it's probably a two to four window process.’ After two windows, his philosophy has gaping holes in its logic.
Getting Sunderland out of League One should not be a long-term project, our only goal should be to exit this league as quickly as possible. The business we have conducted in January complicates Speakman’s new strategy somewhat. He said in the summer that ‘the club was in a position where it hadn't filled a number of spaces, and we didn't have certain people in certain departments’ but that this was rectified in the summer window. This is patently false and you could argue we have only weakened in January.
The marquee signing of Defoe glossed over some pretty weird bits of business in January. Duly, all the gloss was chipped away within the week after a bumper crowd watched us roll over to bottom of the league Doncaster. But this defeat also symbolised everything that was wrong with our window as Oliver Younger, allowed to leave in January, played a great game and our new look defence faltered. The game summed up the short sightedness and complacency at the club from top to bottom – putting Dodds in charge assuming we would win the next two, not getting a manager in straight away after the knee jerk sacking of Lee Johnson and failing to replace players who have left with adequate replacements is not a ‘long term’ plan: its horribly short sided and pure incompetence.
On the topic of failing to replace players, let’s have a look at how our two windows out of four into this ‘long term plan’ have left us:
We replaced Max Power with Corry Evans
The perennially injured Corry Evans came in as captain, effectively replacing Max Power. I was never a huge Power fan, but he is Wigan’s best player so far this season and a decent player for this division. Despite his limitations, he always worked hard and was versatile, playing right back when needed. Compared to Corry Evans, who refuses to show for the ball and goes missing too often, Power is now an active part of a side that looks like it will achieve promotion. He was a good League One player, if a limited footballer. It may seem like revisionism to pine for Power, but the fact remains that despite his limitations he is excelling at a promotion rival whilst have one of the worst captains in the club’s history. Whilst Dan Neil, Alex Pritchard and Elliot Embleton enrich our midfield and are huge improvements on Josh Scowen, many games this season have cried out for someone exactly like Max Power. You just know he’s going to play well against us at the weekend.
We replaced Tom Flanagan, Oliver Younger (and technically Frederick Alves) with Danny Batth
With Xhemajli desperately lacking match fitness, we are extremely stretched at the back. This only becomes more obvious when you factor in how desperately Callum Doyle needs to be rested. Our defence, after a transfer window, looks far, far weaker then at the start of January. Flanagan was having his best season yet at the club and despite the fact that he has a mistake in him, he allowed us to play three at the back and that made us look way more assured. Ollie Younger was deemed not good enough and yet was man of the match in his first game and then was effective against us. You feel that the ‘long term goal’ would involve players like Younger. If we had signed him on loan from a Premier League club, it would have been a progressive move in keeping with our philosophy. If he wasn’t good enough for the club, he shouldn’t have been handed a new deal so recently and it’s not as if Doncaster would have given us money. When you think of the money we would have recouped from these player sales, is it even worth letting them go when we could have greater squad depth and let them go at the end of the season? Very strange.
Swapping Aiden O’Brien for Jermain Defoe and Hume for… nobody
On paper, this sounds like a brilliant deal. Defoe is one of the top scorers in Premier League history and O’Brien bags a handful in League One every season. But the fact remains that O’Brien was a good squad player that connected our midfield and attack, always working hard. There is no reason why we couldn’t have both players at the club, giving us stronger depth and more options. But instead, we are one of the only teams in the league to have just two forwards. We also rely so much on Ross Stewart we could have done with bringing another one of him in. Denver Hume followed AOB to Pompey in January and we are crying out for him now. Midweek man of the match, he has started well for his new club. Contrast his good start with Cirkin’s poor form and losing a left back whilst not bringing one in is ludicrous. Cirkin needs a break, but we have no other left back.
Getting rid of Chris Maguire and bringing in endless wide players
On the wing is the only place we have sufficient depth, yet we choose to not utilise wingers making January’s recruitment even stranger. Getting rid of Maguire was a correct decision in hindsight. Of course, he scored a hat trick against us ,but will he get three more this season? Actually, probably because we play Lincoln soon. Anyway, Maguire was a decent enough footballer but it was good that we parted ways. Every ex Sunderland player is bound to score against us and he got an unexpected hat trick, so fair play to him. Would he have been a squad player this season? Who knows. We have recruited more than enough people to replace him but we play with no width.
In conclusion, our recent form has made it impossible not to think about Speakman’s assured comments on recruitment earlier in the season, because it is so obvious he has failed in his task. Jay Matete is the only January signing we have made who fits our business model. I am glad we have recruited him. But I’m pissed off with some of the mind boggling decisions being made at the club which have compromised our season.
