Sunderland’s Championship campaign ended in a disappointing 16th-placed finish, meaning the club faces a significant summer rebuild as it prepares to appoint a new head coach.
The squad changed considerably from that which beaten Luton Town at home in the first leg of the play-off semi final at the Stadium of Light one year ago today, with some key figures departing and the club committing even more significantly to it’s youth policy. So what did we learn about the club’s strategy over the course of the last two transfer windows, what worked out and what mistakes were made? We rated every single major transfer decision sanctioned by Kristjaan Speakman and Sunderland to address what needs to change in the summer ahead...
13. ISAAC LIHADJI - SOLD TO AL-DUHAIL SC
Lihadji had made little impact in his first six months on Wearside and though there was always going to be a period of adaptation, there was no guarantees he’d be a regular this time around and so to generate a fairly significant profit was a decent bit of business - albeit that didn’t really lead to more players coming in who would have a greater impact on the team in the short run. Decision rated: 7.5/10 | Martin Swinney Photo: Martin Swinney
14. LYNDEN GOOCH - SOLD TO STOKE CITY
Given that Sunderland were looking to the future as Gooch entered the final year of his contract, there was a logic to cashing in when Stoke City put a decent fee on the table - especially given Trai Hume’s progress and Niall Huggins' then promising start to the campaign. The issue really is that those brought in have yet to visibly lift the quality of the squad and it’s hard not to think Gooch would have ended up playing a lot of football this season, particularly when injuries really impacted the left side of defence. His mentality and leadership has also been a big miss around the squad. Decision rated: 4/10 | Martin Swinney Photo: Martin Swinney
15. DANNY BATTH - SOLD TO NORWICH CITY
The consistency of Ballard and O’Nien means that Batth would likely have featured little over the course of the campaign, though that has also been the case at Norwich. With O’Nien’s move to the heart of the defence becoming permanent, the feeling was that it wasn’t right to stand in the way of Batth pushing for a longer-term future elsewhere as he entered the last year of his deal. Hasn’t really worked out for everyone, though Sunderland would argue defence hasn’t really been their major issue this season. Decision rated: 5/10 | Getty Images Photo: Clive Brunskill
16. ROSS STEWART - SOLD TO SOUTHAMPTON
There’s two sides to this one. The first is that a deal worth in excess of £8 million (potentially rising around to 12 in time) was good business for a player in the last year of his contract and who was still recovering from a major injury. That he has since had more injury issues underlined that. However, it will still be a fine deal for Southampton if he goes on to help them win promotion either this season or next, the fee very much a reasonable one for a striker of his ilk more generally. And Sunderland found that within their current wage structure, it was very difficult to replace his quality straight away. While those they acquired may come good in time (and indeed it took Stewart six months or so to make an impact at Sunderland), a chunk of that money has been spent without that major hole in the team being filled successfully. Decision rated: 7.5/10 | Getty Images Photo: Getty Images