Sunderland had 11 players on loans away from Wearside in the second half of last season, and all bar Ben Crompton, who is being released as a free agent, remain contracted to the Stadium of Light.
It is anticipated that the vast majority will be made available for sale this summer, with both Speakman and Regis Le Bris determined to ensure they are not left with too unwieldy a squad when the transfer window closes at the start of September.
Le Bris wrote the likes of Abdoullah Ba, Nazariy Rusyn and Luis Hemir out of his plans when he was planning for a campaign in the Championship last summer, so it is highly unlikely he will want any in his Premier League squad next season. Similarly, it is hard to imagine the Sunderland hierarchy believing that any of the trio will develop into top-flight players in the future.
Nectar Triantis received rave reviews for his performances in the Scottish Premier League with Hibernian though, while Pierre Ekwah and Timothee Pembele both did reasonably well in Ligue 1 with St Etienne and Le Havre respectively.
They could still have development potential, so while Speakman accepts that moving players on will be a key part of his recruitment remit as sporting director this summer, he feels there are still some fringe players within the current squad who could develop into valuable assets in the future.
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While they are unlikely to be ready for the Premier League, they could be retained and sent out on another loan to aid their development.
“When you progress as rapidly as we have, you’re going to end up with players in different categories,” said Speakman. “If you have a longer period of time, then what naturally happens is you end up with a greater number of players in a similar category – i.e. capable of playing at the top end of the Championship. Those who aren’t maybe at that level move on naturally.
“So, we’ve got players in different categories, definitely. We’ve got some players whose next challenge will be away from Sunderland, we’ve got some that we still feel have future potential and so. for those players, we need to find the right loan and get them minutes.
“The Premier League won’t be the environment for that for those particular players. I think that’s just part of the job, to try and get the right outcome.
“But none of that would impact our Premier League squad for next season, and what we’re aiming for in terms of the right number of players for us to be competitive.”
