Kristjaan Speakman delivers Sunderland recruitment update as Cats eye first summer signing

It’s set to be a busy summer at the Academy of Light, as Lee Johnson continues to reshape the squad he inherited in December 2020.

With seven players having been released following the conclusion of the League One season there will undoubtedly be a number of incomings this summer – with some key areas of the field lacking in depth.

But sporting director Speakman insists that any players who arrives on Wearside this summer will have to be a ‘better fit’ the club’s footballing philosophy than those who have departed.

“Ultimately what we've spent a lot of times behind the scenes doing is working out what the identity of the club is,” he said, speaking to safc.com.

"We're doing some more work over the summer, club-wide, on that piece of work but we've got a little bit of a draft on what that should be.

"We have a football philosophy and a game model behind that, and while we've maybe not seen that as consistently as what we would have liked, what we need to do is recruit players who are going to be a better fit to that.

“That's going to be the bedrock of the decisions made over the last fortnight, to try and ensure we've got the players to execute the game plan. We've got a period of time now to be able to assess players who are in the market and to hopefully make the right moves to build that squad.”

Sunderland have already been linked with a host of players since the conclusion of their 2020/21 season, but won’t be able to make any concrete moves until the window opens in early June.

Much of the club’s recruitment work will depend upon the outcome of contract talks with Denver Hume, Luke O’Nien, Charlie Wyke and Aiden McGeady – all of whom the Black Cats are keen to see extend their stays on Wearside.

But the quartet are attracting outside interest and could opt to move on – thus increasing the scale of Sunderland’s rebuilding job.

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