In his time at the Academy of Light, the former Birmingham City man has overseen a radical overhaul of the club’s playing squad with the Wearsiders’ focusing on their academy, and buying young players to be nurtured and blooded in the first team.
It is a strategy that has produced results, with Speakman providing a squad that Alex Neil managed to brilliantly turn into promotion winners following Lee Johnson’s under-achievement.
However, with any recruitment strategy, there are pros and cons. Speakman has been criticised in some quarters for not providing Sunderland with enough depth, as evidenced by the injuries to Ross Stewart and the recall of Ellis Simms which left Tony Mowbray without any senior strikers for large parts of last season. Sunderland then failed to sign an experienced striker during the last January window.
Here, though, we drill down into every signing sanctioned by Speakman since his arrival at the club and rate them from one to ten.
29. Joe Anderson
A signing we haven't really seen too much of, making it hard to judge. 5/10 Photo: Jeremy Ng
30. Isaac Lihadji
The Frenchman struggled to get into the side ahead of Patrick Roberts and Amad Diallo making it another hard-to-judge signing. Sunderland, though, did well to turn a profit on Lihadji and deserve credit for doing so. 5/10 Photo: Stu Forster
31. Joe Gelhardt
Certainly worked hard and showed some glimpses of quality but it was always going to be hard for him to fill Ross Stewart's shoes. 7.5/10 Photo: George Wood
32. Luis Hemir Semedo
It is tough to judge the striker fully but the Portugal youth international has some work to do after an underwhelming first six months in red and white. Is worth noting that he is only 20-years-old still. 5/10 Photo: Frank Reid