Why Sunderland signed Ahmed Abdullahi despite big injury blow explained

It was the news that Sunderland feared but also that they had to an extent expected.

They signed Ahmed Abdullahi knowing that he had been struggling with a persistent groin issue and that further intervention was likely. They decided to press ahead and do the deal and after consultation with a specialist, it has been determined that surgery is the best option. It means a lay-off of at least ten weeks for the deadline-day addition, but the club's hope is that means they will get to the root of the problem and ensure a full recovery in the long run.

For many supporters, there are two obvious questions. Is it worth the risk given the seven-figure fee, and why do the deal when the need was for a striker who could hit the ground running? To the latter, Sunderland would argue that this deal was never about that. The hope was that Abdullahi could offer competition over the next couple of months but the reality is that he was a target identified for the long run. We know this because the Black Cats were working until the latter stages of the window on additional striker deals, with Chelsea's David Datro Fofana one key target. Abdullahi is a player they have been tracking for some time and one who they had not expected to become available in the summer window. When he did, they moved quickly and it was a decision made as much with a view to getting more striking talent into the club for the long run than it was about the immediate need for Regis Le Bris' starting XI. The Nigerian striker showed a highly promising goalscoring knack in his time playing with Gent's youth team, but that was in the third tier of Belgian football and so a period of adaptation to the Championship would have been required injury or otherwise. As well as being impressed by that goal record, Sunderland feel he has attributes required to succeed in the long run - with Le Bris referencing his strength and athleticism shortly after his arrival was confirmed.

There are similarities with the signing of Romaine Mundle in January, albeit the winger was further on his senior career then than Abdullahi was now. Jack Clarke was in stunning form and there was no obvious or immediate route for Mundle into the team, but he had long been admired by the club's recruitment team and it was seen as an opportunity too good to refuse. That Clarke's form gave him time and space to settle was an added bonus. This is a key part of Sunderland's transfer strategy, developing successors to key players while they are still in the building while also managing their finances prudently to ensure that they are in a position to strike when these opportunities come up. Sporting director Kristjaan Speakman referenced this directly after Mundle's signing. This is the positive of Sunderland's approach, though plenty would not unfairly counter that there have been times when a seeming stubbornness to address the immediate needs of the team have cost the club dearly in the short run. The two windows previous to this summer certainly could be assessed that way, though the arrivals of Alan Browne and Chris Mepham this time around hint at an encouraging pragmatism.

The big question now is whether Sunderland have the right balance to get them through to the January window in terms of their striking options. The brilliant start to the season produced by Eliezer Mayenda most certainly took some of the pressure off the striker situation, and is another reason why Sunderland had no issues pushing ahead with the Abdullahi deal. Mayenda infamously suffered a hamstring injury in his first training session at the club and struggled to make an impact across his first campaign on Wearside, but now looks like a huge asset moving forward. All the same, there is an understanding that Sunderland's schedule is getting more and more demanding as we head into the winter months and given Mayenda's inexperience, dips in form and fatigue are inevitable.

So the question then is whether Wilson Isidor and Nazariy Rusyn will be able to step up when required, with the latter struggling at the moment to force his way into Le Bris' thinking from the start at least.Isidor still represents something of an unknown quantity, though the club continue to stress that he was signed as a striker first and foremost. Even so, Le Bris has made clear that even when playing through the middle he'll drift left, and so it will be interesting to see how he copes leading Sunderland's press as Mayenda has done so effectively thus far. In his brief U21 appearances, Isidor has shown both a speed and quality of touch that suggests he'll slot nicely into the counterattacking style in possession that has so far proved so devastating. To sign a striker who fans won't see for around three months does feel very Sunderland, and the debate about whether they should have done more will run for a good whole yet. The Abdullahi deal shouldn't really be part of that conversation, though. This is a calculated risk for the long run.