Just a month has passed since Speakman spoke to a small group of North-East journalists to spell out Sunderland’s plans for the summer, but it feels as though every aspect of the club has already been transformed.
There have been infrastructural improvements at the stadium and training ground to prepare for life back in the Premier League. Florent Ghisolfi has arrived as Sunderland’s new director of football, bringing with him a contacts book and depth of knowledge that has immediately improved the club’s ability to compete in the continental market. Backroom staff? How about a radical overhaul that saw Luciano Vulcano confirmed as Regis Le Bris’ new assistant head coach this week, joined by fellow new recruits Isidre Ramon Madir and Neil Cutler?
So far, so manic. But it’s when we get to Sunderland’s transfer business that things really become supercharged. £20m to turn Enzo Le Fee’s loan move into a permanent transfer. £19.5m for Noah Sadiki. A club-record £30m to sign Habib Diarra. Another £19.5m on Chemsdine Talbi, whose arrival was confirmed yesterday. Another £20.5m on Simon Adingra, whose move from Brighton should be completed later today. A two-year deal for Reinildo Mandava, whose wages will hardly be insignificant given that he has spent the last four seasons playing for Atletico Madrid.
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The speed and scale of Sunderland’s transfer work has been breathtaking, but it has hardly been scattergun. The wisdom, or otherwise, of Sunderland’s ‘project’ was debated endlessly while they were trying to get themselves first out of League One, then out of the Championship. The doubters have surely been silenced now, though, and while plenty of clubs have splashed the cash in an attempt to survive in the Premier League after winning promotion, none have stuck so determinedly to the path Sunderland are following.
Sadiki, 20, a DR Congo international signed from the Belgian top-flight. Diarra, 21, a Senegal international signed from France. Talbi, 20, a Belgian youth international signed from his homeland. Adingra, 23, an Ivory Coast international who is the only summer addition with previous experience of the Premier League. At 31, Reinildo is something of an outlier, with his arrival proving that Speakman was indeed willing to ‘tweak’ the approach he had adopted in the Football League. Fundamentally, though, this is the way Sunderland have been operating for most of the last three years, just with a vastly-increased budget meaning it has been possible to target a different class of player.
Two summers ago, with money in the Championship extremely tight, the Black Cats had to go for Eliezer Mayenda, Luis Hemir and Nazariy Rusyn. Promise, potential, but completely unproven. Talbi, with more than 50 senior appearances for Club Brugge already under his belt, is effectively Mayenda, just a couple of seasons further down the line. Hemir, plucked from Benfica’s B team, was a complete gamble. Sadiki, boasting more than 100 senior outings for last season’s Belgian title winners, feels like a much safer bet.
The Sunderland hierarchy are backing their judgement, buoyed by the knowledge that so many of their previous transfer calls have paid off. They can also reflect on the level of competition they have had to beat off in the last couple of weeks and conclude that, one, they must have been targeting decent players, and two, their work to transform Sunderland’s status, and the way in which the club is perceived overseas, has been worthwhile.
As Speakman said in the statement that accompanied confirmation of Talbi’s arrival yesterday, “Our momentum and story are powerful, and I think players of Chemsdine’s calibre, who are in high demand, are excited by the prospect of playing for Sunderland.”
Of course, there are no guarantees the transfer whirlwind will be successful. This month’s new recruits look hugely exciting on paper, but it remains to be seen how they perform in the Premier League. With so many African players now on the books, negotiating the Africa Cup of Nations, which is scheduled to run from December 21 to January 18, will also be a challenge.
Taken as a whole, though, the transformation that has occurred since Tommy Watson fired home his Wembley winner feels sustainable. Off the pitch, Sunderland have laid the foundations for long-lasting improvement. On it, they will be fielding a team of young, highly-rated players who should hold, or increase, their value no matter what happens next season.
Will that be good enough to secure Premier League survival? Who knows. But unlike in so many previous years, when Sunderland have stumbled back into the top-flight devoid of a grand plan, the degree of clarity and purpose on display in the last month has been commendable and impressive.