Silly Season Shopping: Sunderland

Now it is time for the Dance of Joy.

With the English Premier League season done and dusted, the second season is about to start–the silly season otherwise known as the transfer season. All the teams will be looking to improve and/or profit off of the players the club has developed. Ninety-nine percent of the rumors we will read about will never come to fruition and are likely complete b.s. fed to the papers by players’ agents, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to follow along. To that end UF has recruited our readers to contribute to the madness, along with ourselves, by previewing the silly season for each of the Premier League squads for next season. Next up is commenter MP on Sunderland.

I’ll be quite honest: before writing this piece I really didn’t know all that much about Sunderland. Shocking, I know. When I think of The Black Cats, what typically comes to mind is 1. Steve Bruce, because he used to play for the greatest club in the world; 2. Danny Welbeck, on loan from the greatest club in the world; and/or 3. Asamoah Gyan, thanks to his World Cup efforts, mohawk, and silky smooth goal celebrations. After weeks of tireless research, I have come up with the following information. Enjoy. Or don’t, I don’t really care; just don’t post any comments about how much it sucks.

Sunderland finished 10th in the table, ahead of West Brom on goal difference and only 8 points above the drop zone. Despite finishing up three places from last season and registering their best result in the Prem since back-to-back 7th place finishes in 1999-00 and 00-01, the season seems to have left a bad taste in the supporters’ mouths. Sunderland sat in 6th as late as February, until the sale of Darren Bent and injuries to Gyan, Welbeck, and Frazier Campbell created a goal-scoring crisis that led to losses in 9 of their final 14 matches, including 5 of their last 6 at the Stadium of Light.

Sunderland Really Need Help In These Areas

1. Surprise, surprise: like everyone else in the league, Sunderland need strikers. As mentioned above, they were starved for goals in the final third of the season and midfielder Stephane Sessegnon, acquired from PSG in January, was thrust into an emergency role up front. Welbeck appears to be heading back to Old Trafford, opening up a gaping hole at the 3rd and 4th striker positions, particularly given the fitness concerns surrounding Gyan and Campbell.

2. If Welbeck stays, the focus shifts to depth in midfield and defense, where positions will open up as loan spells for John Mensah, Sulley Muntari, and Nedum Onuoha come to an end. The right flank took a step forward in March when Bruce picked up Ahmed Elmohamady’s £2million permanent transfer option. Sessegnon will return to his familiar role in midfield, but is still adapting to life in the Premiership. Steed Malbranque appears set for a contract extension, but he is 31 and who knows how many injury-free games he has in the tank. Also, Bolo Zenden will move on from the club as he was unhappy with his lack of appearances.

3. Luck. During one stretch in March-May, Bruce only had 10 first team players training on a consistent basis. In addition to the trio of strikers, Kieran Richardson, Lee Cattermole, Jordan Henderson, Michael Turner, Titus Bramble, Craig Gordon, Bolo Zenden, Onuoha, Mensah, Muntari, Anton Ferdinand, and Phil Bardsley (basically every important player in the squad) all missed games through injury.

This Guy Is Really Good And Might Leave/This Guy Isn’t So Good And Might Be Told To Leave

PLEASE DON’T GO: Welbeck. Depending on the outcome of Berba-gate and whatever United decide to do with Owen, Welbeck may very well head back to Old Trafford. Ferguson may feel that the 21-year old would benefit from another season with Sunderland, where he scored 6 times in 22 appearances despite a nagging hamstring injury. The Black Cats would be happy to have him, as he displayed flashes of brilliance (see performance vs. Chelsea)

ADIOS, AMIGO: Zenden. While the 34-year old midfielder did finish the season with 3 starts and 2 goals, he was never going to re-sign after frequently failing to make the bench during the second half of the season. His playing time would be extremely limited next year as, hopefully, the squad returns to full strength.

These Are The Guys Sunderland Is Looking At

Don’t expect any big names. Chairman Niall Quinn has said he is prepared to improve the squad, and they did pocket £18 million (which could rise as high as £24 million) from the Bent sale. However, last summer they set club record with the £13 million purchase of Gyan, and with so much inflation in the transfer market Sunderland will almost certainly look for depth rather than make a splash (relatively speaking) for any big names. That said, here are the names currently being thrown around:

1. Birmingham midfielder Sebastian Larsson. As I said, not very exciting, but this move appears to be all but complete. When Bruce was in charge of ‘Brum he brought Larsson over from Arsenal, and the club is confident that the pair will be reunited.

2. Blackpool Player of the Year (I promise, look it up) David Vaughan. At age 28, the deep-lying midfielder may only have a few seasons of top flight football remaining and his contract expires at month’s end. Blackpool have offered Vaughan an extension, and he has yet to rule out a return to Pleasure Beach (where, at the age of 15, I was lucky enough to spend an entire day, but that’s a story for another time), but has publicly stated that Sunderland are the other club interested in his services.

3. Dimitar Berbatov. The above names were boring me, so I figured I would make something up. And what better way to solve your goal-scoring problems than by adding the co-Golden Boot winner who embarrassingly missed the bench in the CL Final. No credible source (or for that matter, any source) has suggested that the Black Cats are interested in the Continental, but if it happens, you heard it here first.
Glory glory Man United.