http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...any-signings-or-the-makings-of-a-top-six-team Vote for the best Sunderland signing so far, by following the link. In a Premier League transfer window which has so far really only come to life when the North West duo of Manchester United and Liverpool have dipped into their bank account to secure a couple of new faces apiece, Sunderland are proving very much the exception of the entire league. Steve Bruce, with the backing of his chairman Niall Quinn, has this week signed no less than three players, with defenders Wes Brown and John O'Shea arriving from Manchester United and midfielder David Vaughan coming in from relegated side Blackpool. Those three transfers bring the Wearsiders' total of summer signings already to a quite astounding nineâonly a third of the way through July. While most teams tend to wait until late July or even August to begin pulling their squad together for the new campaign, manager Bruce has clearly identified early the players he wants to reshape his team with and, armed with the estimated £16 million from the sale of Jordan Henderson to Liverpool, has set about improving his squad with a decisiveness and ability to splash the cash which fans of certain other teams may look upon with envyâdespite chairman Quinn earlier saying much of their business would be done during the long summer ahead. But is Bruce doing too much, too soon? On the one hand, getting as much of the transfer business out of the way early on will give Bruce time to work with them in the pre-season ahead of the new campaign, while the new faces can get to know one another and gel with their current teammates. Who is Sunderland's best signing so far? Westwood Larsson Gardner Elmohamady Brown O'Shea Vaughan Wickham Ji Alternatively, of course, too many new signings too soon can throw the balance of the team off and the players can take time to gel with one another, especially if Sunderland are planning on changing their established way of playing to suit the new faces. The influx of players began with the permanent signing of Ahmed Elmohamady, who was on loan at the Stadium of Light last season and impressed in his 36 league appearances. The Egyptian did not score a league goal but showed good versatility in playing both in defence and on the right side of midfield and Steve Bruce did not hesitate to make his loan move a more long-term one. Shortly after Henderson departed for Liverpool, Sunderland then went on to capture both Keiren Westwood and Sebastian Larsson on free transfers from Coventry City and Birmingham City respectively. Westwood, a goalkeeper who has represented Ireland at the international level seven times, was in demand from the likes of Leeds as well as his former club Coventry, but chose to join Sunderland in the Premiership instead. Larsson, a predominantly right-sided midfielder, was wanted by rival side Newcastle United in January but, after his club was relegated, also opted for the Black Cats. Next up, and still in June, Sunderland clinched what could in the long run turn out to be one of the biggest coups with the signing of Ipswich Town striker Connor Wickham. The England under 21 striker was certainly in demand with the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool rumoured to be following his trail, but Sunderland acted first and swooped with an initial bid of around £8 million to land the front man. Sunderland won the race for Wickham's signature Ian Walton/Getty Images A second striker signed on the following day as Sunderland completed the drawn out signing of South Korean Ji Dong-won from the Chunnam Dragons after he received his relevant administrative documents. Another Birmingham midfielder, Craig Gardner, arrived the same day for a reported £6 million; perhaps this of all Bruce's transfers so far will turn out to be the most shrewd. Gardner was excellent for a below average Birmingham side last season, scoring 10 times in all competitions. Six transfers wrapped up and not even into July yet. Things were relatively quiet for Sunderland the following week; it took them until July 7th to then swoop for three players on the same dayâthe aforementioned defensive duo of O'Shea and Brown, along with Welsh midfielder Vaughan, who impressed in Blackpool's midfield despite their relegation last year. Sunderland are also still hoping to lure another Manchester United playerâmidfielder Darron Gibsonâto the Stadium of Light, which will take their incoming deals into double figures. Such a turnaround in faces is equally admirable and riskyâbut was it necessary? The Black Cats had a wonderful first half of a season in 2010-11, sitting in sixth position even up until early February. However a disastrous run of form saw them win just once from 11 gamesâlosing nine of themâduring February, March and April. By this time they had fallen to 14th place in the Premier League, suddenly only six points above the relegation zone. However, two wins from their final three games saw them finish in a respectable 10th positionâtheir first top half finish to a season since the 2000-01 campaign, and their first time since they returned to the top flight following relegation in 2005-06. Sunderland's early season form showed they were a squad comfortably capable of holding their own in the top half of the league, though many point to the exit of top scorer Darren Bentâand their subsequent failure to replace him in Januaryâas a primary reason for their sudden plummet down the league table. They did also suffer with a horrendous injury list at times, but at the same time Sunderland did already have a fairly hefty Premier League squad to cope with it. In Ji and Wickham, Sunderland have brought in youth and potential to supplement their current attackers of Asamoah Gyan and Frazier Campbell, but that is an area which could still use some attention. The free signing of keeper Westwood gives Sunderland massive competition for the No. 1 spot; Simon Mignolet and Craig Gordon shared the duty last season and both remain at the club for now. O'Shea and Brown, with their championship-winning experiences behind them, will surely take two of the defensive places for their new team, who still count Titus Bramble, Anton Ferdinand and Michael Turner as their other central enforcers, with Marcos Angeleriâif he finally breaks into the sideâKeiran Richardson and Phil Bardsley offering full back options. Defenders Nyron Nosworthy, Matt Kilgallon and George McCartney are also still on the Sunderland books, having spent last season out on loan at various clubs. Finally, in midfield, Sunderland are seriously heavy-loaded at present. Last season's usual foursome was Steed Malbranque, Lee Cattermole and Elmohamady, as well as the now departed Henderson. Bolo Zenden was also a frequent performer, though he has now left after his contract expired. Cristian Riveros is also still on their books, though will spend the season on loan in Turkey with Kayserispor. Academy products Jack Colback and David Meyler are first team members when not injured, while Stephane Sessegnon had an impressive impact after joining the club in the January transfer window. Added to those six are new boys Gardner, Larsson and Vaughan. In total, the club currently have 24 players ready for first team actionâplus the formerly loaned out defensive trio, if they stay at the club this season. Add to that youngsters such as Craig Lynch, Ryan Noble and Jordan Cook who began to have an impact in the senior side last season and the club suddenly have one of the biggest squads in the entire league. Gibson has yet to decide on a potential move to Sunderland Mike Hewitt/Getty Images Doubtless, there will be one or two faces still to leave the club, while as mentioned the striking department could still do with a more experienced face to go alongside the youthful looking lineup, but Steve Bruce certainly looks to have his hands full as he begins to prepare his side for the new season ahead. A first choice Sunderland team coming into the new seasonâwhich for the Black Cats opens against Liverpool at Anfieldâcould look a little something like this: -----------------Gordon O'Shea Brown Turner Richardson Larsson Cattermole Gardner Malbranque -----------Gyan Wickham which still leaves the likes of Vaughan, Campbell, Bardsley and Sessegnonâand maybe Gibsonâto shore up an impressively strong bench. A top half finish last season could rightly be regarded by the Sunderland hierarchy as something of a successful step on their way to establishing themselves as a bigger Premier League side, but the ambition and ruthlessness of the club this summer shows that they still have a bigger target yetâto get the club into Europe again. Competition for a top sixâor five, as it turned out to be last seasonâplace is more intense than ever these days with the duos from Manchester and North London, plus Chelsea and Liverpool, almost certain to occupy them in some order or other, while Aston Villa, Everton and probably even Sunderland's biggest rivals Newcastle set to fight over the seventh place which could offer another route into the Europa League. Steve Bruce will have to eke out every last piece of consistency from his players this season to manage itâbut one thing is for sure; if Sunderland don't improve on a top 10 placing this time around, it won't be for lack of trying in the transfer market.
Ex-ManU rejects are nothing but expensive flops cast aside.........better the Gardner/Whickham signings........... God it must stick in your craw Brucie is a Wallsend lad!............
I dont believe they are expensive flops, like i said earlier on another thread, lets see what they are like in red and white before we throw the book at them for being flops. and i dont give a crap where he is from or who he supported as a kid (and even if he is still a fan of them) as long as he does the job for us.
You will be able to answer your own question , after the second game of the season. Good on this board, not boring like it is on yours, weve always got things to talk about and share, like new signings for instance, and generally we like your lot to pop in from time to time, often with good debate and interesting comments, unfortunately , you dont fall into this bracket. GET THE PICTURE?
I don't think there has been too many signings.Look at the end of last season,we suffered as we had lots of injuries and no experienced players to fill their positions.Players were playing out of position and overall it cost us.What has Bruce done? he's bulked up the squad with young proven premiership players (Larsson/Gardner) with experienced older players (Brown/O'Shea) with up and coming players (Whickham/Westwood/Dong) add Vaughn (who looked a steady player) and Bruce has cover throughout the team now,with plenty of competiton for places.I still think we should add a couple of more signings.Possibly another striker and a left back or left winger would improve things further?
Westwood Brown O’shea Titus Mcbardo Seb Gardener Colback Vaughan Sess Gyan Would be my first choice team, at least until Wickham gets up to speed or another experienced striker arrives.
First of all, we all know whose "craw is sticking", by the fact that your bitterness and envy has driven you to write what you have. Regarding the original post: the article was self-defeating from the very start, when it stated that getting so many players in early could upset the balance as they may struggle to gel..Surely buy getting the signings in early he is actually giving all these players the time needed to gel!
from what i have heard nzogbia has turned down sunderland and newcastle and is going for a medical on monday if fee is agreed at the villa
Sorted, cheers mate, just wish it would get sorted one way or another and quickly.... His name is doing my head in.
Gordons pretty much ****ed and as soon as he isn't he'll be off, Mig doesn't command his area well enough for me, good shot stopper (he'll be a great keeper, but he was always bought to be back up initially) but the balls over the top to carol he'll struggle with, so for me it has to be Westwood.
He's prob going for financial reasons, rather than football reasons. Villas a team that seems to be at best going a little stale or at worst going backwards, with their key players jumping ship. Not to bothered about insomnia, good player but liable to petulance and can be a disruptive influence, not what we really need at the moment.
I think the Mig will come into his own this season, and will develop into our most popular goalkeeper since Monty in the years to come. That's how much I rate this lad.
but for me he'll never be as popular as Lionel 'give us a wave' Perez, some of the saves he did were world class but then he'd go off on a wander and 9 times out of 10 the opponents would have a simple tap in, still shake my head at his antics.
