Why Eliezer Mayenda could be on the move this summer explained and the big call Florent Ghisfoli has to make
The striker has interest from top European leagues as weighs up the next steps in his career
It’s a strange starting point for a potential summer transfer.
Sunderland love Eliezer Mayenda, and believe he remains one of the most talented young forwards in Europe. Eliezer Mayenda loves Sunderland and has built a strong bond in recent years with team mates, staff and fans.
Even so, Brian Brobbey’s barnstorming performance for the Netherlands against Sweden over the weekend underlined why there is a growing belief that the youngster could well be on the move in the coming months.
Brobbey has been a revelation in recent months and though they rate Mayenda incredibly highly, it would be disingenuous for anyone at Sunderland to suggest that the striker pecking order is likely to change anytime soon. Brobbey’s World Cup form will inevitably mean transfer talk grows but at this stage the expectation is that he goes nowhere and if that is the case, it will quite rightly be his shirt to lose. At 21, Mayenda is still very young but in footballing terms now at a point where he wants to be relied on week in, week out. Ambitious at club and international level, another campaign moving between second and third-choice striker may not greatly appeal and interest from an upwardly-mobile Ligue 1 club like Stade Rennais (also competing in Europe next season) is sure to be attractive.
It leaves Sunderland open to a potential exit for two reasons. One, though Kristjaan Speakman has left the club his successor in Florent Ghisolfi has a very similar philosophy on player departures. Having a player who might rather be elsewhere risks the harmony of the group, and can also damage your future recruitment pitch to young players who might become worried you’ll block their own pathway to first-team football down the line. Two, though Sunderland are under no pressure to sell this summer the reality of life under the new Squad Cost Ratio rules mean that no Premier League club can afford to rule out a sale that would significantly improve their position.
The challenge and the dilemma for Sunderland is to get the balance right between doing right by the player while protecting both their long and short-term position.
Under the new SCR rules, clubs can spend a certain chunk of their revenue on first-team costs (70% for those in European competition, 85% for those not). Those costs include player salaries and from a transfer perspective, a combination of amortisation and a three-year profit/loss calculation. Amortisation is the process in which transfer fees are in a club’s accounts spread over the length of a player’s contract - when a player is sold a profit/loss is then calculated against his remaining book value at that time. That figure is factored into the club’s SCR limit, whether it be positively or negatively, as an average for the following three years.
While Sunderland believe they are well placed for the introduction of the new rules, sales along the way are inevitable both to create room for more investment into the squad and also to strengthen their position when it comes to demanding top dollar for the most important players in their starting XI. To bank a significant profit for a player who is not absolutely integral to the core of your side is very smart business, and explains why permanent moves for Mayenda and Anthony Patterson (academy graduates represent pure profit in accounting and SCR terms) could be on the agenda this summer. Mayenda signed from Sochaux in 2023 for a fee believed to be in the region of £1 million, and Sunderland could expect to make at the very least ten times that if they were to sell this summer.
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You can see the temptation to cash in, but the question for Sunderland is whether they risk selling themselves a little short at this stage. Mayenda struggled to force his way into the XI regularly last season, but still managed to show huge promise at times. It is not a stretch to imagine a scenario where he uses that top-tier experience to go on and explode in another top five European league this season. Sunderland don’t want to leave themselves in a position where twelve months down the line they rue either the possibility of a greater windfall or the fact that they’ve lost a ready-made Premier League striker from within their own ranks. As such, you could make a strong case that an initial loan move could work best for Sunderland, even if maybe not Mayenda’s preference at this stage.
The key for both player and club is not to rush into a final decision. Sunderland are still in the very early stages of their summer revamp, and it’s still perfectly possible that the picture changes between now and the start of the campaign. Wilson Isidor’s future has also been uncertain, and an impressive pre-season could yet give both Sunderland and Mayenda pause for thought.
Since his arrival, Ghisolfi has consistently shown he is prepared to be ruthless and make big calls if it drives the project forward. Similarly, it’s clear that despite his strong attachment to the club, Mayenda is prepared to move on if the opportunity to progress his career is there. It has become one of the key early transfer storylines to follow this summer, and might be one of the most difficult calls Ghisolfi faces between now and the transfer window closing.
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