Sunderland sporting director provides insight into the challenges of lowering the age profile of SAFC squad

And balance is key when it comes to recruitment and ensuring Sunderland bring in the players that will be able to cope with the demands, expectation and pressure of playing at a huge club like the Black Cats.

Speakman has provided some insight into the process the club has taken over recent transfer windows ahead of a big summer at the Stadium of Light, with Sunderland gearing up for their return to the Championship under boss Alex Neil.

Sunderland won promotion following the League One play-off final win over Wycombe Wanderers at Wembley last month.

The new season gets underway at the end of July, with little time for clubs to ensure they bring in the players needed.

When asked about lowering the age profile, Sunderland’s sporting director Kristjaan Speakman said: “Age and experience is not always as easy as that.

"You can have some very experienced 20-year-olds that have played two years in the Champions League. Probably not the ones for us next year, don’t want to raise expectations on that!

“It’s about what experiences those players have had.

"We spent a lot of time in player recruitment discussing around ‘someone could be old but they’ve not played’.

"For example, take Sunderland. Last year in League One, we’re playing in front of 35,000 people. We’re taking an experienced player but in actual fact, they’ve never played in front of that amount of people. So their experiences, even though they are 28, aren’t really relevant for this scenario.

“But you might take Jack Clarke who has played for Leeds in front of a really lively crowd, under pressure and at Tottenham. Then you go ‘he’ll be absolutely comfortable in that environment’.

“We wanted to get a balance. Maybe it’s a slight miscommunication on our behalf which we will apologise for. There is some science and data of where those teams that perform are. You can be older and have a really good succession plan. We’re just trying to get the balance right.”

He added: “At times this year, we have been too young. I’ve been on record saying that. But in previous times we have been too old and we haven’t quite got the needle right and maybe that has affected our overall performance. We have to take criticism for that, which is fine.

“That’s the difficulty when you go through transition because we only have the transfer windows today and they are six months apart and you need three or four of them.

"I’ve had three transfer windows here and I’d like to think if people were going to be critical about the group and lowering the age profile, they would have to say we’ve got some really talented players in our group and we’ve got some older more experienced players that are fundamental to that success and we’ve got some young up-and-coming players that are fundamental to that success. That’s the balance we’ve got to get.

“We’ve just got to make sure that there is enough balance, the coach has got enough choice based on injuries, form to make sure we have got the right eleven.”