Sunderland, along with the majority of the football world, spent countless decades operating in the transfer market in what you could call a ‘traditional’ style. You sign players to form a squad, and when one does well, you sell them on and then reinvest the money in a replacement — hopefully with some cash left over to bolster other positions.
That’s a bit simplistic, but it’s broadly been the way transfers have always worked. You may not sign a replacement immediately, but generally, you sell, take the cash (if you get any), then spend on a like-for-like. When you sign players, barring teenagers, you’re signing them to make an impact right now, be it from the bench or from the start.
Sell Darren Bent, sign Steven Fletcher. Lose Jordan Henderson and Sulley Muntari (albeit only a loan player), sign Craig Gardner, David Vaughan, and Seb Larsson. Sell Simon Mignolet and Stéphane Sessègnon, sign Vito Mannone and Emanuele Giaccherini.
Rather a mixed bag, that, isn’t it?
Whether you bring the replacement in within the window, or 6-12 months down the line, the expectation is always for an immediate impact of equal or greater quality — bringing the huge risk that the replacement doesn’t settle, gets off to a slow start, or simply isn’t as good as you thought.
The current Sunderland regime, by contrast, has almost totally ditched this way of thinking. These days, our like-for-like replacements tend to be through the Academy of Light doors long before we realise departures are even on the cards.
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Sometimes this is due largely to the tender ages of the majority of our signings, but not always, and either way, the benefits of our new way of doing business are bearing plenty of fruit—and have done for a few seasons, really, just with little fanfare.
Cast your minds back to 2020/21 (only briefly, I promise) and recall the red-hot form of one Charlie Wyke, who couldn’t seem to stop scoring even if he wanted to. Thirty-one goals in all competitions was a storming return for a Sunderland striker, and very few would have said he needed replacing.
Yet, in January 2021, in comes a gangly Scottish forward called Ross Stewart, with a poor scoring record north of the border. Stewart scores just three goals that half-season, limited to cameos watching Wyke dispatch chance after chance. ‘What was the point of signing him?’ plenty of us were asking.
Well, cut to 12 months later, and we had our answer. Stewart, by this point six months into his Wearside stay, started the 2021/22 season as first choice following Wyke’s departure and never looked back, firing us to promotion via the play-offs.
That same season, Lynden Gooch was busting a gut at right-back to earn a contract extension, playing 41 games and laying on six assists in the promotion charge. Home-grown, with a clear love for the club, what safer option could we choose to tie that position down?
Well, in comes a young Trai Hume, fresh from Linfield in Northern Ireland, for a measly £250k in January 2022. Hume made just three league appearances that season, spending more time bulking up in the gym than dazzling on the pitch.
Again, a year down the line, Gooch has moved on to Stoke and now Hume, with 30 league appearances in his first full season in 2022/23, is ready-made to fill the void that none would have anticipated the day he signed.
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We can’t know what would have happened if we launched these players into the XI from day one, but I struggle to believe either would have produced the sort of football we needed from the word ‘go’ without so much time behind the scenes, learning from their teammates and coaches, settling into Wearside, and proving their ability in training sessions or U-23s football.
This, for me, is the real genius behind our recruitment strategy. You take so much of the pressure off young footballers by giving them such prolonged bedding-in periods, as well as giving yourself at least six months to examine them close-up, meaning you know whether they’re up to scratch before you even sell their predecessor.
Which brings us onto the present — and what bigger sale to discuss than Jack Clarke? When the news of his departure to Ipswich broke, many fans’ primary concern was ‘How do we replace him?’
Names were bandied around on social media, of varying levels of realism, and the general expectation was that somebody — anybody — would need recruiting to fill the twinkle-toed boots on our left flank.
Step forward, Romaine Mundle! Early days, of course, but the January signing from last season has instantly stepped in with two goals in two games, following a mediocre return of one in 11 in his debut campaign — sound familiar?
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In a similar, although less immediately successful vein, we have lamented the loss of Stewart for effectively 18 months already, following his Achilles injury against Fulham. The crop of strikers signed in summer 2023 didn’t set the world alight (to be polite) and so come summer 2024, signing a striker has been *the* talking point for Sunderland.
While Wilson Isidor and Ahmed Abdullahi were recruited during the window, yet again it is an in-house promotion that has shown immediate results. Eliezer Mayenda, while admittedly being part of a poor attempt to initially replace Stewart and failing to find the net last season, has started 2024/25 with two goals and two assists in four games.
If we’d signed him this summer for £6m, everybody would gush over him. Yet he was already in the building for a fraction of that!
The benefits of this way of working should be plain to see. So, next time Sunderland sell for good money — which will happen plenty, I suspect — take a minute before panicking about signing a replacement.
Just take a look around the dressing room. He’s probably already in there.