Sunderland completed three deals on one of the most dramatic deadline days in recent memory

Around midway through deadline day, Florent Ghisolfi knew Sunderland had a problem.

The club had agreed a deal with Lyon and Malick Fofana to make him their fifth signing of the window, but Crystal Palace were staging a late hijack and the transfer was becoming mired in a sea of intermediaries and conflicting motivations. Kyril Louis-Dreyfus told his director of football: 'I'm not far, I will go.' And so he did, making the short trip from Switzerland.

"I was proud," Ghisolfi explains.

"I couldn't be there because of everything else, so it gave me this extra energy. 'OK, we push again'."

It was, Ghisolfi jokes, a day of 55 hours. What was by his own admission a very difficult window meant that Sunderland had three signings to make on the last day, even if an agreement to sign Kevin Danso was signed relatively early. The Fofana deal became the day's defining saga, one that in truth showed an ugly side to the football industry. At one stage, both clubs had planes ready in Lyon for flights that would never take off. The winger underwent his medical in France and in the end, Sunderland's persistence won out.

Ghisolfi says: "I'm so sorry for the planet, for the environment, because it was a lot of planes for one signature! For one signature where we made the medical in Lyon at the end of the day."

On Wearside, the numerous twists and turns raised the question of whether the club should proceed at all. Did Fofana really want the move? Ghisolfi explains that he can see the logic of the question but is careful to separate what happened on the day from the player himself. Malick is a 'top kid', Ghisolfi insists, and despite everything he always retained belief that Wearside was the player's preferred destination.

"I always believed that he will sign in Sunderland because it was in my opinion the right choice for him," Ghisolfi said.

"He's a good kid, he's clever, he knows, he feels where he can be happy anywhere he can perform. And sometimes the market is like a game. You can be losing 2-1 and, poof, you can win at the end in the 90, 95th minute."

Sunderland went 'Til The End, once again, then?

Ghisolfi breaks out in laughter: "Exactly!"

Sunderland had initially been searching for a right winger, but found the pursuits of their preferred targets impossible to conclude. So the switch focused to bringing in a winger of a high calibre, trusting the versatility of others to cover the opposite flank.

Part of Sunderland's determination not to give up on deadline day was because of that absolute belief in the background they had done on Fofana.

"I was following Malick from when he played in Belgium," Ghisolfi explains.

"Of course, I'm following Ligue 1 a lot so I was following him in Lyon. He brings talent, and he's someone who doesn't feel the pressure. He likes to be under pressure and we need players like that also. He's good one-against-one and we need to create some difference this way. He's fast, attacks the space, but also be good with the ball at his feet.

"The good thing is with Malick, so on the left side with Dayann [Methalie] I think it's good because we have players who already have good experience, but they have a big margin. They have room to improve if they start to play consistently in the Premier League, so this is a very good thing for us. We have these two experienced players with Meunier and Danso who can bring leadership and standards, so we are very happy."

Part of the challenge for Ghisolfi and his team on deadline day was that for all their hope that they could close on Fofana, they had to work simultaneously on other options in case he did opt for Crystal Palace. All while trying to conclude a deal for Juan Riquelme Angulo, which was done with quite literally minutes to spare. Angulo's club had been determined not to lose him during their ongoing campaign, but Sunderland's persistence made the difference.

"We were always confident to close, but maybe it could be two players or three," Ghisolfi explains.

"The last one was Juan Riquelmo Angulo. It was not maybe the most important position to cover [on the day], but it was important for us because we had a roadmap with six players at the beginning of the market. So six was the target. The exact positions we signed... okay we spoke about the right and winger but at the end we are very happy. If it was five, it was okay, because also we have a market in the winter but we were very happy to finish like this."

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Ghisolfi believes the three deals, which all at one stage looked far from certain, demonstrates the determination behind the scenes to drive the club forward.

"It was a rush, but at the end, it was a very good experience also to see to see the commitment of the manager, the ownership," Ghisolfi says.

"This alignment I think is our strength today. We are ready to fight for this football club always, we are ready to fight for our environment and it's what we did on the last day.

"You know Kyril, how important the club is for him, how he is involved. He's not a dictator, he wants to understand, to support, to follow. We are always in contact and his mood was very positive even when it was a bit difficult. He was supportive and because we know where we are going. It's not dependent on if if we succeed on the last day of the market or not, we know the project we are building for the future."

Ghisolfi jokes that the Fofana saga is another chapter for the book to be written one day down the line; a day of high stress but a key part of his job: "I think if I don't have this adrenaline, I cannot be happy at the end of the day. This week has been a bit slow for me!"

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