With the season now over and the greatest escape (surely) achieved on Wednesday night and the seaon over after todays home defeat to Swansea thoughts now turn to the summer with next season in mind. When I say that I would love next season to be no thrills and no panic a mid table finish, not setting the word alight but not one mention of the R word I think most Sunderland fans would agree with me. The last 2 seasons have been awful, just managing to claw ourselves away from relegation with a couple of games to go is not good enough for a club like Sunderland but what needs to happen with our playing squad? We have had 5 players on loan (Celustka, Vergini, Alonso, Ki and Borini) and we have Dossena, Bardsley, Westwood, Ustari, Colback, Vaughan, Larsson, Gardner and Cuellar all out of contract. We also have the likes of Cabral, N'Diaye, Graham and Diakite who are out on loan with what seems like no future at the club and Roberge, Scocco, Fletcher and Altidore who IMO have big question marks on their SAFC futures. It does not take a rocket scientist to work out that we have a busy summer ahead of us. Getting to the point... GK - Mannone, ????, Pickford RB - ????, ???? LB - ????, ???? CB - Brown, O'Shea, ????, ???? CM - Cattermole, Bridcutt, ????, ????, ????, Ba W - Johnson, ????, ????, Giaccherini Mavrias CF - ????, Wickham, ???? IMO we need to fill those question marks, I think a couple of the loan players such as Alonso and Vergini will be here again next season and a couple of the free agents such as Ustari, Colback and Larsson maybe but this summer is massive! We need to splash the cash to get us away from that relegation zone Good Luck Gus
It's interesting as to where our attention turns in the transfer market. Another summer of signing cheap players we've never heard of from abroad? A return to buying average premier league players on big wages? Taking the pickings from the relegated sides Picking up good young English prospects from the championship and below? A mixture of all. The main thing is to build a side though. Not just signing anyone available regardless of how the get wedged into the team.
certainly won't happen while Poyet is here he will want players in with the attributes to fit his philosophy
I reckon Poyet will have a fair idea of who he wants to bring in now. He has on numerous occasions said there were 2 plans in place. Once for the Prem and the other for the Champ. I can see Vergini and Colback getting a new contract. Larson may have played him self into one. Bardsley has a broken arm now, so I reckon that would rule him out. Now I think we will look at a mixture of overseas and young British players (such as maybe Josh McCheran?).
The key to building and moving forward is to keep Poyet. If a bus kept changing it's driver at every stop youd get ****ing nowhere. There's some quality to be had from the relegated sides and Bundesliga is bursting with talent that is great value for money. Congerton has just spent the last few years at hamburg so should have the knowledge.
I'm fully expecting both Alonso & Vergini to be either signed or another loan spell. I think Vergini will be signed and possibly a further loan for Alonso but would love to sign the lad, he was a big miss yesterday. I also reckon we'll have Borini for another loan spell. Either way, you're bang on, Ellis has to dig deep this summer if he doesn't want a repeat of last season.
Emanuele Giaccherini has told the Italian media that he wants to stay at Sunderland and believes he will be better for an eye-opening and challenging first season in England here: http://rokerreport.sbnation.com/2014/5/12/5709174/giaccherini-sunderland-transfers-wants-to-stay I hope he stays- seemed a game changer when he came on from the bench - can only get better imo
