Phil Smith's Sunderland Deadline Day Q&A: Left-back latest, takeover talk & is another forward on the wishlist?

Though any international additions have to sign today, the extra two weeks for Premier League and EFL clubs to do business amongst themselves buys Sunderland valuable time to complete their transfer jigsaw.

Nevertheless, the Black Cats are assessing their options and Phil Smith has been taking questions from fans about what happens next in the market, as well as reflecting on the opening month of the season….

If the chance came, would you reshuffle Phil Parkinson’s strikers to sign a 10+ a season forward, and get more gametime for Benji Kimpioka?

First and foremost, I think we should expect Graham, Grigg & O’Brien to be 10-goal strikers in this league.

Graham missed a big chance on Saturday, but is still working on his match fitness and has done some good things with his link-up play.

O’Brien is an interesting one in that I think he’s played well so far. He makes good runs, links up with the other forwards well, and keeps getting in scoring positions.

He’s had more shots than any other Sunderland striker, and so the question is whether he’s just lacking a bit of confidence or whether his finishing is an area to work on.

Grigg, obviously, is a much tougher nut to crack.

It was revealing that even though Sunderland had so many shots and crosses against Bristol Rovers on opening day, Grigg didn’t have an effort on target himself.

Sunderland just don’t seem to play in a way that suits his strengths.

Think back to that goal against Harrogate in pre-season. How many times do we see that kind of pass to him, where Dan Neil splits the defence and lays it into his path as he runs off the shoulder of the defence? Nowhere near enough.

He’s dropped down the pecking order fairly swiftly and it feels like it’s going to be difficult to make it work in a system where Parkinson clearly thinks a target-man style striker is key.

In the salary cap era, there aren’t going to be many clubs who could take much of an interest. It’s a frustrating situation but one that it’s difficult to see changing.

As for Benji, this first thing to say is that he has a lot of work to do now that he has signed his new contract.

He’s missed pre-season and in that time, a number of youngsters have jumped ahead.

He needs to have a big start to his U23 season. I’ve seen games at that level where he has been a menace: strong, quick and determined.

I’ve seen others last season where he made little impression.

He’s got talent, undoubtedly, but he needs to find consistent form in Elliott Dickman’s side to really bang the door down.

Despite the positive start to the season there are still concerns who can consistently put the ball in the back of the net, defensively we look solid, we seem to be creating plenty of chances but not putting them away. If we had a natural goalscorer (someone like Will Grigg 4 years go) we could walk this league. Is there an appetite to get another forward or is Phil Parkinson looking to keep faith with what we have already got?

It’s a really good question.

Parkinson firmly backed his strikers after the game on Saturday, and it was a pointed comment when he said that you won’t get many better at this level than the ones at his disposal.

I don’t think it’s a priority.

Depth and cover in defence, at centre-back and left wing-back, are the two deals that I think are top of the list.

Of course, we’ve seen Sunderland pursue Mateo Bajamich over the summer, but I’m not sure that was because Parkinson was pushing hard for another striker. It was more the case that Sunderland’s recruitment team thought he looked like a talent, and that he was pushed to the club as potentially being available.

Being U21 and not part of the salary cap restrictions, they decided it could be worth the gamble.

Parkinson really rates Graham, and I think as his match fitness grows he will get more and more opportunities.

I think some of his play so far has been really good, but Parkinson put it best on Saturday when he said that his strikers are big and brave enough to know they’ll be judged on their scoring output.

So my instinct is that he is comfortable moving forward with the options he has.

I’ll add one caveat, though.

He has said for a few weeks that he will only bring a loanee in if they instantly improve his starting XI.

Last Thursday, he added that he was still waiting to determine the availability of a couple of targets he’s been tracking from the very start of the summer.

It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that this includes a forward player.

Between now and October 16th, though, defensive cover is very much top of the list.

Follow the latest from Sunderland and League One in our Deadline Day liveblog

Pace and goalscorers is all we need, will the so called "biggest budget ever in League One" be used do you think?

To be fair, I’ve said from day one that I don’t think budget has ever really been an issue.

They’ve had the biggest wage bill since they dropped into League One and I’d be pretty confident in saying that won’t have changed this year.

Last Saturday, they brought almost £4 million worth of strikers off the bench.

Has any League One team ever done that?

The issue has been not getting value for their spending and the reasons for that are myriad, but mostly come down to not investing properly in recruitment structures and a short-termism that we have seen all too often at this club in the last decade or so.

On your first point, Parkinson’s comments, as I mentioned before, on Saturday suggested that he feels he has goalscorers in his squad and that they will come good.

The issue of pace is an interesting one and it’s definitely something I agree with.

Parkinson was actually asked directly about it last week, and has this response: “Ideally, a bit more pace would be nice. But we’ve got Jack Diamond, and Benji has just re-signed, so if we’re going to bring young players in on loan, then they’ve got to be better than our own young players.”

The demands of the attacking left wing-back role in this system are such that any addition there absolutely has to have pace.

It’s clear that Parkinson doesn’t want to rule out a forward addition of that ilk entirely, but that he also doesn’t see it is an absolute priority and isn’t sure if the right deal that can be done is out there.

Will we do any business today and is anyone in the frame to join?

It would be a surprise if there were any incoming deals today.

Parkinson suggested last week that the break that follows tomorrow night’s visit of Carlisle United is a good opportunity to take stock and plan the next steps.

Sunderland of course have until October 16th to do deals with EFL and Premier League clubs.

He has had some targets in mind for a little while.

We know that one option visited the Academy of Light last week, but his physical assessment showed he is some way off full fitness and so that deal has gone on the backburner.

We also know, as I mentioned above, that there are one or two potential loan options.

Parkinson is essentially waiting on those player’s parent clubs to decide if they are needed or whether they can leave on a temporary basis.

I’d be very surprised if another centre-back and another left-back did not arrive at some stage before the second deadline.

What is happening with the takeover? William Storey is still saying that he will buy the club?

I wrote when William Storey went public with his interest that my information from within the club was that he was not being considered as a credible buyer.

Since then, I’ve not heard anything to suggest otherwise.

The takeover remains the biggest question hanging over the club and now into the second week of October, we’ve still had no news of a resolution.

The COVID-19 pandemic was put forward as the reason for the delay, which did seem strange given that talks must have begun when the virus was already a major issue (Stewart Donald told supporter groups in July that no one was in the ‘data room’).

Of course, it’s also true that clubs were planning to have supporters back in grounds from this month and the halt of that programme, in the absence of a financial bail-out, has major implications for each and every team.

Supporters have heard nothing since that meeting in July, and this needs to change at some stage soon.

These are uncertain times for all clubs and at Sunderland, there are also still crucial positions to be filled: Academy Manager, Head of Recruitment, Chair of the Board.

Everyone understands that NDA’s and such like mean confidentiality is important.

But fans also deserve a sense of where the club is headed, and what the implications are if a deal is not progressing at pace.

We can’t have another prolonged period of limbo engulfing the club.

Why isn’t McGeady being considered for the 1st team? He creates chances and scores goals. Whatever has happened can’t they put the club first?

Phil Parkinson has always said that there is no one specific reason that McGeady was removed from the first-team environment.

There has been a lot of speculation, much of it unfair and untrue.

It’s worth remembering that McGeady has trained with the U23s, with no issue, during the time he has been at the club but not part of Parkinson’s plans.

The Black Cats boss did say at the time of his decision that he felt the culture and spirit around the group could be better, and that’s as close to a definitive reason as we’ve had.

This summer, he has also moved his argument forward a little by saying that he also wants to protect the pathway for the likes of Dan Neil and Elliot Embleton (currently not fit).

Fans will keep a keen eye on that as the season develops.

I think it’s also fair to point out there are huge demands in terms of pressing defenders in Parkinson’s system, that wasn’t necessarily there as strongly previously.

I don’t think there’s any doubt that McGeady is a matchwinner at this level. Having said that, Sunderland’s chance creation for the most part this season has been quite good.

They aren’t having any problems getting the ball into dangerous positions, they’re just not making the most of those openings when they get them.

McGeady is a quality player, and at the time the decision was made I argued that it could hurt the team on the pitch.

At times it probably has, in games where they have looked a little short of inspiration, though there was never a major drop-off in the team’s attacking output generally.

Ultimately, though, his time as a first-team player on Wearside (under Parkinson at least) is over.

Worth stressing, too, that he’s been sidelined for a few weeks with a calf problem and so wouldn’t have been fit to play this season yet anyway.

That could have an impact going forward, as a lack of match fitness might make it more difficult to find a new club.

We’ll have to wait and see on that one.

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