Why Vito Mannone deal STILL makes no sense, financially or football-wise

So it wasn’t a shock when the very next day, the last day of the January window, Chris Coleman brought in three new faces and tried for more.

After another defeat against Ipswich that’s just made things worse, we can only hope that the business Sunderland did in January is enough and not too little, too late.

The most urgent position Coleman wanted strengthening was up front, where a tall physical presence was badly needed.

After a host of players were linked, Ashley Fletcher was the man to arrive, and it is his job now to lead the line and take the weight off Josh Maja and Joel Asoro.

I’m not sure how far down the list of striker targets Fletcher was, but he can make himself a hero on Wearside if he can score the goals that fire Sunderland to safety.

The Ovie Ejaria loan signing from Liverpool seems to be a straight replacement for Didier Ndong and while I don’t know a great deal about him, he’s highly-rated at Anfield and played in England’s successful U20s team alongside Jake Clarke-Salter, so he has obvious talent and potential.

The third signing was Lee Camp and given the form of Robbin Ruiter and Jason Steele, that also was no surprise.

The goalkeeping situation has been a failure entirely of Sunderland’s own making and sums up the many things wrong in recruitment for years.

Of all the problems Sunderland had after relegation, Vito Mannone wasn’t one of them and he would have been a more than capable keeper at this level.

Instead they let him go and not one, not two, but now three keepers have been brought in since his departure.

It doesn’t even make sense financially as though Vito would have been a high wage earner, Sunderland are now paying three salaries plus signing on fees and all the other financial outlays that come with new signings.

However, Sunderland’s new recruits aren’t to blame for past mistakes, they’ll all be welcomed to the club and embraced by the fans who are desperate for them all to make a positive impact.