Gary Rowell: Sunderland must find League One equivalents of Jan Kirchhoff, Wahbi Khazri and Lamine Kone in January or remain in wilderness

What Sunderland fans would give for three players of the calibre of Kone, Khazri and Kirchhoff because without those three signings Sunderland would have almost certainly been relegated.

All three players were brilliant and proved how good Allardyce’s contacts, scouting network and his own personal judgement was and probably still is.

Kirchhoff was superb in midfield, pulling all the strings, and but for injuries who knows might still be in the Premier League.

Khazri was highly skilled, scoring some great goals, and I will never forget that volley against Chelsea before then being ridiculously underused under David Moyes.

Kone was quite simply immense, a rock of a defender who formed a partnership with Younes Kaboul that in my opinion is the best centre back pairing Sunderland have fielded in the Premier League but again was broken up too quickly.

Looking back at the past, you can get angry at where we were and how far we have sunk and unless Sunderland find the League One equivalents of Kirchhoff, Khazri and Kone we will remain in the wilderness.