We are seeing Sunderland's new forward-thinking in action - and it is incredibly exciting

After all these years, Sunderland finally appear to have ceased control of their own destiny.

In my 35 years supporting Sunderland, I have pretty much seen it all. Record highs, record lows, a European Golden Boot winner, Wembley drama, Roy Keane, great escapes and desperate disappointments – and that is to name just a few of them.

Right now, though, Sunderland are displaying something that I have never seen from them before: astute forward planning and clever thinking.

In truth, we are still in the very early days of it, but the reported signing of Isaac Lihadji is proof that Sunderland – yes, that Sunderland – actually seem to finally know what they’re doing.

During the Premier League years, I would go as far as saying that Sunderland completely mis-used the loan system. It’s supposed to be there to enhance a team short-term to help it grow in the long-term.

Sunderland, though, somehow came to rely upon it. Danny Welbeck, Fabio Borini, Danny Rose, Marcos Alonso, Ki Sung-yueng, Nicklas Bendtner, Nedum Onouha, Djibril Cisse, Yann M’Vila…

Quality players who we were happy to have for however long we had them, but also players who were never likely to return.

Sunderland are in a similar position now in that Amad Diallo is a key member of the team, and there is no chance of him being here next season. If we go by history, that should raise alarm bells for fans.

Because, if we are honest, the way this would have been handled in the past would have been to wait for them to inevitably go back, come back for pre-season training much weaker without them, start the season like that, lose three games, wait until the transfer deadline to see which loan players could be scrambled over the line, wait six months for them to settle, then hope for a great escape.

Eventually, of course, Adnan Januzaj and Jason Denayer turned up with barely a heart between them and that was that.

Things, though, are very different now. Now we are seeing forward planning and decisive early action. Never mind trying to sort it in a panic two months after a loan player has gone, Sunderland are signing Amad Diallo’s replacement months before he even leaves.

What is even better is that Sunderland are being completely transparent with the fans about it all.

"I think both [permanent and loans] are appropriate,” Mowbray recently said while discussing strikers. “We do need to try and sign our own players but to help our situation a loan isn't a bad option either.

"I do think the priority is to sign footballers that we think are the right quality to help the club going forward, because loans obviously go back to their parent clubs.

"This is why the policy of signing young players fits in really. If you bring a loan player and he's the man for now alongside Ross, potentially the younger one gets game time off the bench and you filter him in.

"If the loan goes back at the end of the season then you've got a young player who's had six months integrated into the club and for the next season is ready to hit the ground running."

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That appears to be exactly what Sunderland are doing with Isaac Lihadji. Get the most out of Amad Diallo when you can whilst he is still here while also integrating Lihadji into the squad and helping him settle at the club without also dealing with the immediate expectation to perform. Then, when Amad leaves you have a ready-made replacement to step in straight away.

If there is one thing that is inevitable in football it is player turnover. We know that top players will leave Sunderland, whether they are returning to parent clubs or sold. That, though, is a lot less scary when the club are showing they on top of things and have genuine plans in place to make sure quality replacements are signed up early.

It’s a clever policy and really is indicative of a club fully in control of their recruitment and destiny, and that should be incredibly exciting for all Sunderland fans.

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