The Early Black Cat Gets The Wickham

It’s been a busy summer already in the North-East of England. There’s been a lot going on at Newcastle with the acquisition of Demba Ba from West Ham and the surprising snag of Sylvain Marveaux from Rennes on a free transfer. Although Toon has certainly been active it’s their red rivals who have really worked the market to their advantage. Red stripes, not black, look set to mark the biggest club in the region

Flying Out of the Gates

After sending promising youngster, Jordan Henderson, to Liverpool for a reported £15m, they’ve managed to reinvest the funds in talent that should have the Sunderland supporters proclaiming Henderson’s departure as a masterstroke for the club. Before the start of July, no less than 6 new players (I’m counting the permanent deal for Elmohamady) had been brought in for an estimated £18m. That’s just a £3m loss.

What used to be the definitive yo-yo club, Sunderland has slowly established itself as a solid Premier League squad over last few campaigns. What Steve Bruce and chairman Niall Quinn have done is build a solid squad, strategically centered around young English talent. Frazier Campbell (23), captain Lee Cattermole (23), Craig Gardner (24) and the incredibly hot property that is Conor Wickham (18) are recent acquistions that affirm the club’s investment in up-and-coming english talent.

The Big Selling Point

When bought by Sunderland, Darren Bent was just 25. Two years and 32 league goals later, they cashed in on the talisman when a desperate Aston Villa came calling, and netted a profit of roughly £8m. That number could raise based on performance clauses in the sale agreement. It’s indicative of Sunderland’s focus on the future. With UEFA’s Fair Play regulations going into effect next year, the era of big spending and operating on a loss is hopefully over. It means player salaries and transfer fees will diminish, all except for those of English footballers. The Premier League’s Home Grown rules have meant that the long-held price inflation surrounding English talent will stay intact, even under the Fair Play regulations.

Both big sales of Bent and Henderson notably have taken place before the implementation of Fair Play, but Sunderland will still demand large transfer fees in the coming years. Of the players listed on the First Team Squad on the club’s website, 7 are Englishmen born in 1990 at the earliest. It’s unlikely that most of them will develop into studs on Henderson’s level, but if 2 or 3 can, Sunderland could be looking at successful and lucrative years down the road.

Connor’s Capture Coup

The former Ipswich teen’s (Connor Wickham) arrival at Sunderland is more than just a big acquisition for the Black Cats. It shows that they can, in fact, flex some transfer muscles against the big clubs when needed. With Liverpool and Spurs among Wickham’s suitors, the club benefited from being aggressive early in the window. The youngster’s arrival may just be convincing some of the club’s other targets to join the party. After all, the arrivals of John O’Shea and Wes Brown from Manchester United happened just after the Black Cats transfer whirlwind. Perhaps the linked duo of Peter Crouch and Darren Gibson could be persuaded to join? Crouch in particular, is a player who was thrilled to move from Liverpool to Portsmouth as he saw the South Shore outfit as “a club on the rise.” Imagine how enamored he would be to move to a club that makes sound financial decisions while acquiring talented players at the same time.

The impressive quality of Sunderland’s transfer activity isn’t the quantity, but the quality, and that isn’t specific to talent. They’ve capitalized on exorbitant transfer valuations for Henderson and Bent, while shrewdly reinvesting those funds into solid players. Even on the loan front, they’ve been superb. With 5 players taken on loan last campaign, the club managed to add depth and quality to the squad without breaking the bank. John Mensah, Sulley Muntari, Danny Welbeck, Nedum Onuoha, and Ahmed Elmohamady all made significant impacts on the field.

The club that finished in the top-half of the EPL table for the first time since 2001 looks even more formidable this campaign. It’s been a slow, steady path to Premier League stability for Sunderland, but it’s one that looks to finally be paying off. Obviously, all of these players could be flops, but it’s unlikely. Steve Bruce has proven that he’s grown as a manager, on and off the field, while the club’s board is learning to resist the urge to live outside its means. The last two years at the Stadium of Light account for the club’s two lowest gross expenditures in the transfer market since 2007. They deserve a bit of recognition and credit for doing things properly and professionally, particularly in the era of extravagant, arrogant greed that football is in. Well done Black Cats.