Kirchhoff, McNair and the recruitment mistake Sunderland can’t keep making

It had been a most galling night at the Macron Stadium. Sunderland had stood up and competed, carved out chances, pushed Bolton Wanderers back towards their own goal.

They were applauded and cheered by their outstanding away support, but the end product was missing and a deeply damaging 1-0 defeat was all they had to show for their efforts.

Within 24 hours, Phil Parkinson’s side had moved to further rub salt into the gaping Wearside wounds.

Jan Kirchhoff, the supremely talented and still much-loved German, was on trial with Sunderland’s relegation rivals. A one-hour cameo in an U23 game was all the Trotters needed to make the deal permanent.

67% of Echo readers polled felt the club were wrong not to hand him a new deal last summer.

Certainly, his height and composure have been badly missed in a midfield which has lacked both technical quality and real presence throughout the campaign.

Since an injury to Darron Gibson, Chris Coleman has struggled to find the controlling figure he so badly desires in front of his back three.

Kirchhoff, with his outstanding positional awareness and the ability to spread the play quickly and accurately to the wingbacks, would have been some asset.

If fit even to play in four or five games for Bolton, he will hand them an enormous advantage in the fight to top the mini-league opening up at the foot of the Championship. The composure he possesses was badly missing from virtually every player involved in that frantic and ultimately demoralising 1-0 defeat.

Still, it is hard to argue that Sunderland were wrong to let the 27-year-old go.

His quality was never in doubt. At Bayern Munich Pep Guardiola had him very much in his plans until injuries took their inevitable toll.

After leaving the Black Cats, Premier League and Bundesliga sides queued up to take a look at a player who could turn out to be one of the bargain acquisitions of the window. Burnley and West Brom looked closely, but ultimately nagging doubts were never banished.

It says much that it has taken so long for a player of such quality to get back into the game.

Could Kirchhoff have been managed better in that second season, when he all too often seemed to be rushed back and put out of action again? Possibly, but the real frustration is that having let Kirchhoff go, Sunderland made so many of the same mistakes.

For all his flaws, David Moyes was absolutely right that Sunderland would need a robust squad for this season.

They did not build one and the repeated injury problems have been all too predictable, with too many players brought in with a poor record of regularly playing first team games in recent years.

The squad has in truth never truly looked fit for purpose at Championship level.

The return of Paddy McNair in recent weeks, and in fairness Sunderland have been deeply unfortunate with the injury problems he and Duncan Watmore have had to battle through, has finally given Sunderland some real physicality in a key area of the pitch.

With Lamine Kone and Kazenga LuaLua, the spine of the side will look more competitive and should see Sunderland overpowered less.

To avoid relegation, it may be coming too late.

Of course Sunderland’s recruitment is badly hampered by the reluctance of the owner to allow significant investment. It is the brutal shock therapy to Sunderland’s finances that has forced them to pursue players struggling for games on the fringes of other clubs.

That will not be easily overcome, but Sunderland, whatever league they are in next season and whoever is in charge, simply cannot afford to enter another campaign so underpowered.

They need players at peak age and in peak condition, both to improve the energy of the side and also the consistency of results.

Their logic in letting Kirchhoff go was understandable, but what happened next was never going to be enough to replace his quality on a weekly basis.