Transfers and takeovers – your questions answered
Deadline Day part one was always likely to be a quiet one on Wearside.
Though any international additions had to sign by yesterday, the extra two weeks for Premier League and EFL clubs to do business amongst themselves buys Sunderland valuable time to complete their transfer jigsaw.
As such, the Black Cats are assessing their options and Phil Smith has been taking questions from fans about what happensnext inthemarket, as well as reflecting on the openingmonthoftheseason…
If the chance came, would you reshuffle Phil Parkinson’s strikers to sign a +10-a-season forward, and getmoregametimeforBenji Kimpioka?
First and foremost, I think we should expect Danny Graham, Wil Grigg and Aiden O’Brien to be 10-goal strikers in this league.
Graham missed a big chance on Saturday, but is still working on his match fitness and has done some good things with his link-up play.
O’Brien is an interesting one in that I think he’s played well so far. He makes good runs, links up with the other forwards well, and keeps getting in scoring positions.
He’s had more shots than any other Sunderland striker, and so the question is whether he’s just lacking a bit of confidenceorwhetherhisfinishing is an area to work on.
Grigg, obviously, is a much tougher nut to crack.
It was revealing that even th oug h Su n d e rl a n d h ad so many shots and crosses against Bristol Rovers on opening day, Grigg didn’t have an effort on target himself.
Su n d e rl a n d j u s t d o n’ t seem to play in a way that suits his strengths.
Think back to that goal against Harrogate Town in pre-season. How many times do we see that kind of pass to him, where Dan Neil splits the defence and lays it into his path as he runs off the shoulder of the defence? Nowhere near enough.
He’s dropped down the pecking order fairly swiftly and it feels like it’s going to be difficult to make it work
in a system where Parkinson clearly thinks a target manstyle striker is key.
In the salary cap era, there aren’t going to be many clubs who could take much of an interest. It’s a frustrating situation but one that it’s difficult to see changing.
As for Benji, this first thing to say is that he has a lot of work to do now that he has signed his new contract.
He’s missed pre-season and in that time, a number of youngsters have jumped ahead.
He needs to have a big start to his U23 season. I’ve seen games at that level where he has been a menace: strong, quick and determined.
I’ve seen others last season where he made little impression.
He’s got talent, undoubtedly, but he needs to find consistent form in Elliott Dickman’s side to really bang the door down.
Will the so called "biggest budget ever in League One" be used, do you think?
To be fair, I’ve said from day one that I don’t think budget has ever really been an issue.
They’ve had the biggest wage bill since they dropped into League One and I’d be pretty confident in saying that won’t have changed this year.
L a s t S at u r d ay, t h e y brought almost £4 million worthofstrikersoffthebench.
Has any League One team ever done that?
The issue has been not getting value for their spending and the reasons for that are myriad, but mostly come down to not investing properly in recruitment structures and a short-termism that we have seen all too often at this club in the last decade or so.
On your first point, Parkinson’s comments, as I mentioned before, on Saturday suggested that he feels he has goalscorers in his squad and that they will come good.
The issue of pace is an interesting one and it’s definitely something I agree with.
Parkinson was actually asked directly about it last week, and referenced Jack Diamond and Kimpioka.
The demands of the attacking left wing-back role in this system are such that any addition there absolutely has to have pace.
It’s clear that Parkinson doesn’t want to rule out a forward addition of that ilk entirely, but he also doesn’t see it as an absolute priority and isn’t sure if the right deal is out there.
What is happening with the takeover? William Storey is still saying that he will buy the club?
I wrote when William Storey went public with his interest that my information from withintheclubwasthathewas not being considered as a credible buyer.
Since then, I’ve not heard anything to suggest otherwise.
The takeover remains the biggest question hanging over the club and now into the second week of October, we’ve still had no news of a resolution.
The COVID-19 pandemic was put forward as the reason for the delay, which did seem strange given that talks must havebegunwhentheviruswas already a major issue (Stewart Donald told supporter groups in July that no one was in the ‘data room’).
Of course, it’s also true that clubs were planning to have supporters back in grounds from this month and the halt of that programme, in the absence of a financial bail-out, has major implications for each and every team.
Supporters have heard nothing since that meeting in July, and this needs to change at some stage soon.
These are uncertain times forallclubsandatSunderland, there are also still crucial positions to be filled: Academy Manager, Head of Recruitment, Chair of the Board.
Everyoneunderstandsthat NDAs and such like mean confidentiality is important.
But fans also deserve a sense of where the club is headed, and what the implications are if a deal is not progressing at pace.
We can’t have another prolonged period of limbo engulfing the club.