Welcome to part two of "Who We've Sold", where I'm looking at each player who left Sunderland AFC over the summer. Part two focuses on the deadline day outgoings - check out part one if you haven't already...
ELLIOT EMBLETON
The first deadline day exit to be confirmed was play-off final winner Embo going on loan to Derby County. After successful League One campaigns with Blackpool and then ourselves, he's looking to secure his third promotion to the Championship. Primarily a number 10, he's in the final stages of recovering from a pretty bad injury so that's possibly why we've chosen to send him elsewhere for game time. I'm not so sure about that decision though. With Mowbray saying he wanted to have him involved against Southampton, it therefore seems odd to send him out on loan. Matete and Evans are also injured so he probably would have appeared in some games until at least January as well. Derby isn't a bad place for him to go in complete fairness, with the Rams more than likely to finish near the top of the tree come May. More game time than he would have gotten here is another argument to loan him out, but I still feel he had a role he could have played here. He's so far played 92 times and scored 11 during his Sunderland career. Not an amazing record but he pops up with big goals in big games, as well as doing a lot of work off the ball which the stats don't show. The 24 year old will look to come back stronger and fight for a place in midfield.
DANNY BATTH
This was probably the most contentious departure amongst our fanbase. As our most experienced centre back it was a massive shock when reports emerged that he wouldn't be offered a new contract at the end of the season and had been given the green light to find another club if he wanted to. At the age of 32 it's completely understandable that he chose to leave in order to play more regularly rather than compete with younger players to start, but his experience will be a massive loss. Yes, it's completely valid to argue that he doesn't fit in with our high defensive line, however what he offers to younger defenders in this squad and his knowledge of the English game would be highly valuable to the likes of Seelt and Triantis. He's gone though and despite this being questionable, we have to back the club to have made the right choice because they have gotten very little wrong in the grand scheme of things. We apparently got a fee of around £700k for him as well (although there are mixed reports that it may have been a free transfer). that's not half-bad for someone in the last year of their contract at his age. Batth departs for Norwich with 55 appearances, one goal and a promotion under his belt here.
LYNDEN GOOCH
In 2023 Lynden Gooch isn't vital to us being a successful team but his exit still hurts due to the fact he's been involved with the first team since the Premier League days, scored our first winner at Wembley since 1973 and helped us to promotion. The USA international can leave with his head held high due to his contributions during the darkest period in the club's entire history. We've been given £1 million for him, which is a good amount for a player in a similar situation to Batth contractually. It's not like he hasn't been adequately replaced, Pembélé is a very exciting signing. Overall this has been well managed by the club, at the age of 27 Gooch will be entering into his prime so needs regular game time and Alex Neil clearly likes him if he's taken him to Stoke. Lynden leaves with 247 games played for us and 25 goals. He has already made his debut for his new side as well - at least he's still playing in red and white. Thank you for everything, Lynden.
ROSS STEWART
The fact he earned himself the nickname 'the Loch Ness Drogba' speaks for itself. He was brilliant for us in League One and easily proved his worth in limited Championship minutes. If he hadn't have had those two horrendous injuries last campaign we'd probably be a Premier League club now. It's no secret he wanted to leave, having not signed any of the contracts offered to him for some time before his exit. Realistically he needed to leave now or at the latest January so we could get a fee. In the end we've gotten around £8 million initially, later rising to around £10 million, a fantastic piece of business for a player we signed for only around £300k. On paper at least we've replaced him quite well with four new centre-forwards but players of Ross Stewart's ilk don't grow on trees so losing him is still a disappointment. With Ross departing with 81 games played and 40 goals scored he's definitely contributed a lot and deserves to be considered in a good light amongst our support, even if it ended on a sour note. Southampton will be promotion rivals against us, so it will be interesting to see what could happen. Facing Ross Stewart in a play off final wouldn't be fun.
