COMMENT: Nothing to fear for Sunderland despite Premier League interest in stars

It is finally fun to be a Sunderland fan again, and we shouldn't let a bit of Premier League interest in top players spoil that.

Author:
Adam Voisey
Publish date:
Jun 13, 2023 9:37 AM EDT

This time of year can somewhat leave us at a bit of a loss, Most are looking for things to fill our time without the staple diet of watching Sunderland up and down the country.

Of course, football clubs can’t afford the luxury of standing still. Do that and they fall behind the eight ball almost immediately. As soon as one door closes, though, as it did for us at Luton a few weeks ago, another one opens. So, what for Sunderland as we go into the 2023-24 season?

The inevitable rumour mill of course goes into overdrive, players linked here, there, and everywhere, both in terms of coming in and going out.

However, this summer feels somewhat different for us to usual. The sense of excitement should replace the worry about what over the hills player we’ve signed in years gone by. The other side of the coin naturally, as we see now after what was our most exciting campaign for a long time, is that our better players that shone through in our first year back in the championship will now obviously, and already seem to be, being courted in higher reaches.

Many will see our expectations will be set higher next year, and reasonably so. With that comes the greater need for us to keep the core of the squad together to achieve the next step of what ultimately is a return to the Premier League.

Players like Jack Clarke, who is being linked with a move to Burnley, Crystal Palace, Everton and Brentford, are always going to be coveted by Premier League clubs. That is just the nature of football.

We shouldn’t be fearful of this though. In fact, it’s a good thing, Sunderland for far too long struggled to sell any players due to the lack of quality within the club. We even had to pay some players off, such was the embarrassment of their performances for the club.

The fact Clarke is being linked with a big money move away should stand as much as anything to testament to the way Sunderland as a football club is viewed now. We are no longer looked at as a basket club we once were. The club has a structure and a plan for which they should be praised. Of course, as fans, we shudder at the thought of losing good players, and losing Clarke would undoubtedly be a blow.

Clubs are always bigger than any one player, though, and as long as there is a plan for losing players like Clarke, we should be confident in the club. For that, there is evidence that we do have that long-term strategy for the a club. Years of scattergun approach and mismanagement, we hope, is a long way behind us.

The impact of Amad Diallo in his loan time at the club will have made many clubs higher up in England, and even abroad, sit up and take note that Sunderland is a club very much on the up and provides clear pathways for players to develop.

This invariably means by following this plan, and certainly from last year, it will naturally strengthen our hand when it comes to the recruitment of new players going into next season.

We might have lost Diallo back to United. but there’s no reason why the club can’t pull off the signing of another gem such was Amad’s success.

The recent recruitment of twenty-year-old Nectarios Triantis from A-League side Central Coastal Mariners, for example, shows we have our next cast far and wide, again though he fits the profile of what the club is striving to achieve: Young players with potential that have a chance to showcase their talents. When did we ever look at or even consider signing young players from the other side of the world?

Last season Sunderland had the youngest average age of any squad in the Championship, and we also suffered probably the worst injury crisis of any team in the division. Yet, at times, Tony Mowbray's men played some of the best football in the country. That won’t have gone unnoticed in lots of circles, and again for that we should be applauded.

Kristjaan Speakman Sunderland — Sunderland AFC

Of course, there is always a balancing act. We cant simply load every good young player the recruitment team spot up in the squad. But, again, I'm sure the club are aware of the shortcomings last season and target this moving forward.

It’s almost a blur to think we did only come up through the playoffs from League One just 12 months ago. Last season, Sunderland finished the highest of any promoted since coming up from the third tier in eight years. The last team to finish that high was Brentford who finished fifth after promotion in 2015, and well they’ve not done too badly since.

It’s difficult to compare how clubs are run, but I do see the club is trying something very similar to teams like Brentford.

Many are arguing the Championship will be harder next season, with the teams coming down all having been established clubs in the Premier League. That shouldn’t faze Sunderland though.

If anything it should be seen as exciting and a challenge to once again push on. Ultimately, it’s just a good time to be a Sunderland fan again, and I can’t remember the last time a lot of us could say that.

Read more Sunderland news