Ross: New signings must fit style of play and handle Cats’ pressure
Since being appointed Sunderland manager, Jack Ross has been inundated with offers of players.
But the new Black Cats boss is only interested in those who fit his style of play and crucially those who are capable of standing up to the challenge and pressure of playing for a club the size and stature of Sunderland.
Sunderland will be the biggest club in League One next season and Ross is targeting an instant return to the Championship.
Pressure will be high and big characters needed.
The former St Mirren and Alloa boss has opened up on the type of players he wants to recruit for Sunderland this summer, with a huge squad overhaul expected.
The squad that returns for pre-season training at the Academy of Light later this month will likely be almost unrecognisable from the one that ended the Championship campaign.
The seven loan players have departed, John O’Shea has signed for Reading, with the remaining out-ofcontract players set to finally learn their fate this week.
There will be further bigname departures with Didier Ndong, Lamine Kone, Wahbi Khazri and Papy Djilobodji expected to leave.
Shifting some of those from the sizeable wage bill won’t be easy, but it will be a necessity for Sunderland as they look to rebuild in the third tier.
The club has suffered back-to-back relegations and Ross knows all too well how critical it is to not only get the right players in, in terms of their technical ability, but also their character.
Ross said: “There’s an identification of players that fit the style you want to play, that’s a key aspect of it [recruitment].
“Nowadays you get an awful lot of good players offered to you on a daily basis, but you have to make sure it’s a good player that fits with your style and secondly, can deal with the circumstances your club is in, and it is a challenging one here.
“That process began in earnest Friday, but it’s one that I think we can manage and get a squad that can win promotion from this league.
“There’s no point looking too far ahead, League One is the challenge we have to face first.”
Ross wasted no time getting to work on his recruitment plans following his official unveiling. And after years of struggle, Ross, who turned 42 on Tuesday, knows he may have to sell some players his vision for the club going forward, while others will already have decided their futures are not on Wearside. “We need to have that discussion as a club as to who will be here and who won’t, for various reasons,” said Ross.
“It’s key to a club being successful [players who want to be there], especially in a league like this.
“There will be some who at the moment are unconvinced and it might be up to me to try and convince them, others may have already made their mind up.”