Summer window

No. He clearly states in the article that their long term futures have been resolved in the clubs respect and they won't be getting new contracts once their current ones expire in 2024.

 

I’ve just met a Chinese drug addict.
He said “Have you seen MY COCAINE”
I said “Not since I last watched Zulu”

 

https://www.getfootballnewsfrance.c...interest-from-championship-and-spanish-teams/

 

oh so he does. Well I'm chatting nonsense then

 

Agree. A well run club looks after its' players. If a player has an off the field problem making them unhappy and unsettled,it's incumbent on the club management to address the problem and find the solution....even if it means,however reluctantly, the player has to leave. There is little point in a club trying to hang onto a player by invoking contract clauses,when it's clear the player is unhappy. May as well cash in/out and move on.

 

Nogomania chief football writer calling out that page saying Zan Vipotnik coming here as fake

 

Sunderland’s Kristjaan Speakman: Signings, success and their ‘start-up’ mentality

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By Michael Walker
7h ago
Friday morning at Sunderland’s Academy of Light training ground and the workmen are in. They are refurbishing and expanding the canteen so that in the words of sporting director Kristjaan Speakman, it becomes “a hub” for players and staff, a place where they can all relax, eat, socialise.

It may seem a small development, but this is Sunderland’s daily environment and along with something like recent improvements to training pitches, it matters. Players old and new should notice and benefit.

For Speakman, 44, it matters in another way. “In my position, you can spend a lot of time talking about vision and strategy,” he says. “What investment in infrastructure does is show tangible progress, that’s where people see it.

“The stadium is undergoing some changes over the summer, which I hope supporters will enjoy. It shows the direction of travel for the club.”

Sunderland’s direction of travel is no longer a subject Wearsiders would like to sidestep. Last season’s sixth-place finish in the Championship and narrow play-off defeat to Luton Town, with Sunderland diminished by injuries, exceeded expectations inside and outside the club. There was a style and verve to the young team’s progress.

Another way to look at it is that Sunderland ended the season as the 26th best club in England, which may not sound great considering they were 10th in average home attendances if the play-off v Luton is included; but it is different, so different, from coming fifth in League One the previous May — 49th in the pyramid.

A 2022 play-off victory followed by a play-off defeat in 2023, Sunderland fans will take that after four painful, demoralising seasons in League One.

In the course of a 40-minute conversation in his office, Speakman eventually comes to talk of the “power” of Sunderland, but it is preceded by acknowledgement of the lows the club has seen. The club’s ego should be in check.

Yet it is hard for locals not to mention that 33,000 season tickets have already been sold, four new recruits have arrived and it is not jarring to hear in Speakman’s first and last answers the words “excitement” and “exciting”.

When asked to give a summer 2023 general assessment of where Sunderland are, Speakman, who came from Birmingham City on a rainy day in December 2020, says this: “There’s a real excitement around the club, internally and externally.



“Having completed a season in the Championship, I feel there’s a lot of validation on and off the pitch. People now have a certain amount of confidence in their capabilities and confidence and momentum are really important commodities in performance sport.

“But there’s a balance, we don’t want confidence to become complacency. I don’t feel there is complacency. There’s a raw ambition to take on the next challenge.”

The date of Speakman joining is a reminder that the team’s average age is not the only young feature. Majority owner Kyril-Louis Dreyfus, only 25, has been in charge for less than three years and the board, Speakman, head of recruitment Stuart Harvey, head coach Tony Mowbray and many players are new to Wearside.

“Sunderland are on a new journey under Kyril’s ownership and leadership,” Speakman says. “And when we’re doing our work around the community and with different partners, we sometimes talk about ourselves as a bit like a start-up.

“To get to where we’ve got so far we’ve had to have a bit of a start-up mentality — people doing different things, working long hours, trying to find solutions, create ideas. We’ve had to employ a lot of new people over a short period, implement a new strategy, make people understand what our values are. These are all things new companies do. That can provide a buzz and we want to keep that positivity.

“You want the team to represent what your club is. That might have been an accusation aimed at Sunderland before. I like to think at the minute our squad is a positive representation of our club and city.

“We’re an evolving club, an evolving team, an evolving football operation.”

The concept of Sunderland as a 144-year-old start-up will amuse some, but the club’s new direction, its evolving components, is incorporated in another term: “model”.



As with Brighton or Brentford, Sunderland’s is based on player trading — buying at one price and selling at a higher one. It’s just that although Sunderland have acquired 15 players since January 2021, all but one of whom has been 22 or under (backup goalkeeper Alex Bass was 24), they are yet to move one on for a significant profit.

It seems, however, the model is now being tested because of the interest in Jack Clarke. Clarke joined the club last summer from Tottenham for an initial sum that was less than £1million. After a successful season swaying in from the left wing and scoring nine Championship goals, Clarke has been the subject of two bids from promoted Burnley.

Neither, though, has reached eight figures, meaning Sunderland can drum their fingers on the table. Speakman did not refer to Clarke by name when responding, but says: “When we eventually sell a player who’s come, improved and moved on, I understand that will have huge implications for the club.

“It could be next week, it could be next year. We think we know where value is in the market and we think we know our players’ value. I’m looking forward to adding that conundrum to Sunderland.”

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Jack Clarke (Photo: Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
So you’re not in the midst of it?

“I don’t feel we are. The transfer window is open and the email can ping and there will be something to deal with.

“The benefit of planning is that you’re basically doing a pre-mortem on those things. So if someone calls about a particular player, it won’t be the first conversation internally we’ve had about that player.”

More generally, how is Sunderland’s “model” working?

“We have to be clear here: the model is to create a team that can get promoted.

“The by-product of that is having good players and, if you don’t get promoted, some players will go past you. They are Premier League-ready and the team won’t be. Likewise, if you progress, there’ll be players who won’t keep pace.



“In terms of our squad composition, we want to be in a position where other clubs think our players would be assets for them. That would put Sunderland in a strong position. In terms of how robust we can be in retaining players, if the question is: ‘are we going let players leave on the cheap?’, the answer is No.”

Striker Ross Stewart is another who could test/confirm Sunderland’s model. Have there been bids for Stewart, who is out of contract next summer?

“We’re not getting into whether we’ve had bids. That’s our private business.

“The situation is no different to where we have been: we are really keen to retain Ross and everything from his camp is that he’d like to stay. But we haven’t got to an agreement that both parties would like to sign off. Externally that can seem strange, but we don’t think it is — Dennis Cirkin re-signed last week and we have been speaking to him about his contract for maybe six months.”

Cirkin was 19 when signing from Tottenham for an undisclosed nominal fee two years ago. Despite injuries, his value has accelerated, as seen in the new contract. He was 21 in April and Speakman references Cirkin’s goals at West Brom that month when discussing away form. It was a sweet victory from a team with an average age of 22.

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Dennis Cirkin, left (Photo: Clive Mason/Getty Images)
Youth has become a modern Sunderland characteristic. This summer’s four new faces — Nectarios Triantis, Jenson Seelt, Luis Semedo and Jobe Bellingham, 20, 20, 19 and 17 respectively, reaffirm that.

“We have always spoken about balance,” Speakman says. “I don’t subscribe to the idea that if the team doesn’t do well, we’re going to look at its age. We’re interested in good people and talented individuals; we’ve tried to recruit based on talent.

“But everyone has seen the benefits of a youthful, exuberant, aspirational group. Obviously last season we fielded the youngest team in the Championship and I think we had the eight youngest starting XIs in the league. But that’s not the ambition, we’re trying to grow a team.



“My question back would be: as long as we’re signing the right quality, does age really matter?”

One other young face, Amad Diallo, was 20 when he came on loan from Manchester United last August. He will be 21 next week, but while Speakman relished the gifted forward’s contribution, he does not foresee a repeat.

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GO DEEPER

Amad is shining at Sunderland - but when might he be ready for Manchester United?



“I’m so happy Amad sat in here at the end of the season with me and Tony and had a vibrant smile on his face,” Speakman says. “He loved it. Naturally, that’s what we want.

“Can Amad return to Sunderland? I don’t think so. He should be playing in tier one, in England, La Liga, Bundesliga, wherever. That’s the level of player he is. The staff here, the players and supporters have helped him get back on that journey and hopefully that will attract more players to want to come to Sunderland.”

Speakman does point out that in Danny Batth, Corry Evans, Alex Pritchard and Patrick Roberts, now 26 though hardly ancient, the dressing room has experience. Would Sunderland sign a player in a similar age range to add maturity?

“I’m not saying we wouldn’t.

“We’re trying to be planned. Some of the signings this summer have not been easy to make. You have to be extremely well-organised to convince players that this is the place to come. The summer signings are four years-plus, three have signed for five years. You’re asking for a huge commitment both ways.

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Jobe Bellingham (Photo: Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)
“The danger is that when anyone talks about long-term, it’s a paradox with ambition. Our ambition is always to put out the strongest team in any given season, but we understand this season is part of a tranche of seasons.

“We’re not going to discount any season in that process, but the question around whether the club is ‘having a go’, is it ambitious, we can’t just look at transfer expenditure. We believe that having a go is having a clear strategy, really good recruitment and coaching; and our net transfer expenditure has been high, third or fourth in the division last season.”

Pre-season games begin this Saturday — one at South Shields, one at Gateshead — before an American tour. Mowbray will be in charge.

Part of last season’s achievement was that it came against a backdrop of injuries — Stewart started only 11 league games, captain Evans was out from January — and an enforced managerial change when Alex Neil left for Stoke City six matches in. Mowbray stepped in on a two-year contract and dealt with the fallout — the squad had bought into Neil.

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GO DEEPER

Sunderland rescued their game with Luton just like they rescued their season under Tony Mowbray



Speakman knew it was a vulnerable period and takes pride in the club’s collective resilience: “It can crumble quickly and I didn’t see that. I saw people stand up and work through the noise. The players were exemplary, but they were emotional, they’d committed to the coach.”

He says it was “really difficult for Tony to come in early in the season and pick up the pieces” and salutes his “really calm manner” and “insight”.

Yet Mowbray climaxed the season musing aloud about the apparent uncertainty of his position and while in Speakman’s role he has to prepare for what comes next, Mowbray, briefly, looked exposed.

“In any elite organisation there’s going to be succession planning — in every area,” Speakman says. “We’ve just been talking about succession planning regarding players. We have to do that for all our staff.”

Part of Mowbray’s remit this season is to improve results at the Stadium of Light. Sunderland were 16th in the home form table last season — they were fourth away from home.

“We experience opposition who are buoyant because of the Stadium of Light atmosphere,” Speakman says, “and what it means to them to get a point or nick a win.

“We don’t look at our home form and think of many performances that weren’t good, but part of our progression is to turn performances into victories, to be more machine-like. That comes from understanding your strength as a team and sticking to your playing identity. It’s something we’re certainly aware of.”

Sunderland begin at home against promoted Ipswich Town in a televised match. This time last season, the keyword was “consolidation”; this season, Speakman has another c-word: “consistency”. The team did not win three consecutive matches once last season.

Doing so this season will hardly be straightforward, the theory being that with Leeds United, Leicester City and Southampton in the division, three of the top six places are already taken.

At this suggestion, for the first time, Speakman bristles: “Yeah, but I don’t think there are many clubs in the country as powerful as Sunderland.

“I don’t say that with arrogance, it’s just that everyone knows what Sunderland is and we have reached a point where we are starting to tell that story with a certain pride, which is important for people within the club and the city.

“That factor — ‘the power of Sunderland’ if you like, the home support, the away support, the vibrancy — it has an impact on the owner, on the sporting director, on the coach, the players and staff. Everyone wants to be part of that. It’s a powerful commodity. I can count loads of matches at the Stadium of Light that have been special. Kyril’s the same.”

He pauses.

“It’s exciting.”

 

Ave just spat me dinner all over

 

With all these supposed outgoings you’d think we were having a fire sale

 

Revamping some of the bars (Quinn's) and boxes.

 

Callum Doyle signing for Leicester permanently for between £7-10m according to the Athletic

Cracking signing for them that. Getting Maresca is a masterstroke I reckon.

 

if any of the current squad actually leave then i guess they move on with our best wishes, just as bailey and 'winniesta' have.

i would really like to see a couple of 26+ year olds in there though, an older, more experienced head is valuable...not saying i have no faith in the younger lads just that however good they are they will gain experience every game and having good role models will be beneficial to them.

was thinking over the early recruitment of these 4 lads, the club have shown that they know what they are looking for with the younger lads and other clubs will have taken note so it is no wonder any young lad who is linked there seems to be a few others 'suddenly' interested, getting the business done early before most started looking could be more beneficial than just getting them into the team for full pre-season.

 

Some interesting news - Mowbray and Speakman not on the greatest of terms. (Working relationship stable however Mowbray not thrilled with news leaking about SAFC sounding out other coaches for the SAFC job).

 

Ah the benefits of parachute payments (unless you're ran as badly as we were)

 

Considering the circumstances Mowbray himself was appointed in, surely he should be aware that we need contingency plans.

 

Don't really care if they're best buddies or not , as long they get along professionally.

Not sure why TM would take it personally mind you. Leaks happen (though it's not ideal) and I'm sure he must be aware that contingency plans are needed.

 

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Was this not the case as soon as the season ended let’s hope they can get on better in the work place

 

They're doing things the right way but I can't help but hope he's ****s it and has been sacked by Xmas

 

Whilst I like Callum Doyle I think if the figures have been reported correctly the 7-10 Million is over priced when you consider what we reportedly paid for Ballard who in my opinion is a better all round defender than Doyle and I believe a better prospect.