Phil Smith: The youth recruitment that has become even more vital for Sunderland after controversial salary cap vote

The Carabao Cup and EFL Trophy draws underline the fact that the season which for so long felt as if it might never arrive is now beginning to loom large on the horizon.

Sunderland's first competitive fixture is just over a fortnight away and there is much work to be done.

At the absolute bare minimum, Phil Parkinson needs another goalkeeper, two defenders, and a striker. Another midfielder is also likely to be on his agenda.

In an ordinary summer (though there truly is no such thing at Sunderland) it would be challenge enough. In this one, the new salary cap rules have simply put more hurdles in place.

Now, the Black Cats are having to make decisions in all of the positions in which cover is quite clearly required.

The challenge

Our rough estimate is that under the new rules, they are likely operating with around £2,000 a week per player to offer.

Creative solutions, then, are needed.

Could a saving in one department allow a little more room in another?

A well targeted loan deal, for example, could make a big difference.

There is also another option that could serve another vitally important role for the club more generally.

U21s are exempt entirely from the cap, both in terms of their wage, and also in terms of the limit of 22 players that clubs are allowed to register.

Sunderland need significant cover for their first team, while their U23 side is crying out for an injection of quality.

If Elliot Dickman is to be competitive this season he needs far greater depth than he was able to call upon last year.

One of the key hopes held by supporters when Sunderland dropped into League One was that their Category One academy would give them a major advantage over their rivals.

To an extent, it did.

Lynden Gooch and George Honeyman became mainstays of the side, while Josh Maja's goals may well have fired the club to promotion had it not been for his untimely sale in the January window.

By and large, though, the Academy of Light has not been the force that it should have been.

Too many talented players left before agreeing professional terms, and the reinvestment back into the U18 and U23 groups that have been most affected has been minimal.

The salary cap rules, without a doubt, do not benefit Sunderland.

The Black Cats opposed them and said that while they support sustainability, the rules put in place are about levelling the playing field.

It's a sentiment shared by Parkinson, who has said that the EFL should simply have tightened up and better policed their previous rules, which limit clubs (at least in theory) to spending 60% of their turnover on wages.

A big opportunity

Yet the savings Sunderland should allow them to address the deficiencies in their upper age groups and offer a unique opportunity to bring the first team closer to the academy.

Particularly in the 'new normal' clubs are facing, it surely makes more sense to see the U23 side as a 'B' team, or a reserve unit.

One that can offer match practice for senior players, and an opportunity for youngsters to impress.

The latter point is particularly key when it looks as if Parkinson will be taking a smaller squad into a brutal schedule that is packed with midweek cup and league fixtures, particularly in the opening months of the season.

To that end, it was of interest to see the club take Morgan Feeney on trial last week.

The central defender was released by Everton and while he has limited senior experience, he has represented England at youth level.

It remains to be seen whether Parkinson and his staff will be sufficiently impressed to offer the defender a deal, but it's an approach more generally that makes sense.

The key decisions being made

Sunderland are still without an academy manager and that will be a crucial appointment as the club seeks to reverse two damaging years of player departures.

A first round of interviews was held last week, and so the expectation is that an appointment will be made before the new campaign.

In the interim, head of academy recruitment Ged McNamee has been given the green light to begin work on his list of targets and the fruits of that were first seen last weekend, when the club announced deals for Sam Wilding, Vinnie Steels and Bobby Beaumont.

They will be the first of many and quite simply, they will have to be.

The squad currently looks threadbare, particularly with Bali Mumba having joined Norwich City and with Benji Kimpioka's future still very much unresolved.

The salary cap rules pose a major challenge for the Black Cats this season and the increased pressure (if that were even possible) to win promotion will always bring the risk of encouraging the kind of short-term thinking that has proved so damaging over the years.

It is imperative that the rules, however challenging for the club as a whole, allow some of the damage of the last two years in the Academy to be repaired.

That would go a long way to improving the club's long-term prospects, and done well, it might just solve one or two headaches for Parkinson over the course of what is sure to be a bruising season in the hunt for promotion.

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