Gary Rowell: 'We need a winger, midfielder and centre-back'
The transfer window is upon us now and while I think that Sunderland will be looking most closely at reducing their squad size and wage bill, I think it is important that they look to strengthen too.
No-one would disagree that Sunderland's squad is far too large as it stands. It's huge!
And it's possibly the biggest squad Sunderland has had in its history.
I know there's a saying that you can't have too many players but actually, in reality, you can.
If you've got far too many pros then it just becomes unwieldy and divisions can rapidly spring up simply because you can't keep everyone happy.
For that reason, I hope there's plenty of movement out of the club, because I think most people would come up with the same list if they were asked to look at the squad and name half-a-dozen to a dozen players that the club could afford to lose.
On the other side of things, I've got a late Christmas wish-list of the type of players I would like to see come in.
I've got very clear views on where we need to strengthen and the type of player we need to bring in and ideally we'd bring in three players.
I think that one thing the squad really lacks is width. Carlos Edwards is probably the only out-and-out winger we have at the club and while the jury is out on Carlos, it didn't escape my notice that he got an assist to his name at the weekend – his first league start of the season when he got to the byline and put in a good cross for Cisse.
So the first priority for me would be looking for a genuine winger.
I also think that we need a ball-playing midfielder who can dictate the game – we haven't got one, though Kieran Richardson is coming close.
And we also need another centre-half because when Anton Ferdinand isn't playing, we are not looking comfortable at the moment. He missed the league games against Bolton and against Everton and we conceded seven in those two matches.
So there you have it – an out-and-out winger, an authoritative midfielder and a commanding centre-half.
Sadly, it's easier said than done!
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Friday 10 February 2012
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