Are Sunderland the new Newcastle?

Article by e-Sunderland's Ben Mummery

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More than midway through July, we have a new World Champion in zee Germans, and pre-season has begun all over the country. The gears of the mighty football engine are slowly starting to turn back into action, transfer rumours fly, deals are done, and players spit dummies over “imagine rights” and other silly such things us mere mortals will never understand.

All the while, all is quiet on Wearside.

Sunderland played their first pre-season friendly of the year on Saturday, as Poyet’s squad took on Darlington at Heritage Park. The lads ran out 5-1 winners on a rain soaked afternoon in Bishop Auckland, and the fans were treated to a grand afternoon as the long awaited return to action looked to be underway.

While games like this prepare us only so far, and show us only so much of what the players and the team can do, one hopes that after each of these warm up games there are some positives to take away.

Steven Fletcher went some way to proving his rehabilitation is complete, with a positive performance which encapsulated a great deal of energy, movement, and was capped off with two goals.

Young on-trial forward Max Clayton played well on the left side of midfield, showing he has some promise, and El-Hadji Ba impressed the fans yet again with a positive performance in central midfield. New signings Jordi Gomez and Billy Jones looked raring to go, and in all, a good afternoon was had.

There is however, one, sadly, ever present issue to address.

When scanning over the current squad list of playing staff the club has available to the manager at this point in July, there are some glaring holes, and in key positions to boot! Moreover, these are holes which, while Darlington might not have been able to capitalise, teams in the premier league will take full advantage of.

We are still without a left back, with Jones having filling in yesterday. We are thin on the ground right across the back line, with veterans Brown and O’Shea holding the fort, Roberge and Diakite likely to leave the club, and Virgini having returned to his parent club.

While Ba and Gomez proved their worth yesterday, Cattermole and Bridcutt still in the squad, and Larsson lurking between midfield and wide right, one still looks at central midfield and thinks, “will it be enough?”

Johnson (absent at the weekend) and Giaccherini are more than capable as wide men, however they are all we have in terms of recognised first team options, with all other possibilities being younger development players.

With contract disputes on going with Wickham, Altidore still causing worries for fans, and the ever going saga of Fabio Borini still not concluded, we are still in cloud cuckoo land if we think we have enough up front to last a full Premier League season.

So then, why the comparison to our northern neighbours Newcastle United, you ask?

As any Sunderland fan who has been within one hundred yards of a toon fan will tell you, they’ve spent the last six or seven years whining like it’s nobody’s business about their club’s refusal to buy players, invest in their squad, and all such similar things.

The last few weeks have seen a turnaround in Sunderland fan’s attitude towards the same policies at their club, and now it seems many Mackems are also starting to wonder, where are the signings? Where is the investment, and without wanting to sound too much like our black and white friends, “where is the ambition”?

While the Newcastle board spend money on their central midfield and attacking option, Sunderland seem to be going completely to ground, tightening the purse strings, and resisting any sort of investment – a complete flip around in form for the two rival clubs!

Sunderland finished the league strongly last season, as we all know. We pulled off a miracle, there can be no doubts! A combination of Poyet’s influence, and a serious firework up the backsides of a few under-performing players saw Sunderland to a fourteenth place finish, a feat which even the most optimistic of Sunderland obsessed fans couldn’t have seen coming – and let’s not forget the wins at Chelsea and Manchester United!

Be that as it may, the season on the whole was a struggle for the club. The cup competition aside, the team had more of their fair share of trouble competing in the Premier League at times. A chaotic start was partially to blame, but there was a startling lack of quality at times, and only the magic cooked up in the last couple of weeks managed to secure our top-flight status. The season is long and hard, and a better class of squad is needed; this is something that we all hope, surely the club knows, and is working hard to put right?

Surely they’ve learned from their flirt with disaster, and are planning a spending spree to re-energise the squad, to make sure we have an easier ride this time out?

So, where are these new players? Where is the investment, where is the ambition?

Three free transfers is a good start, with Jones, Gomes, and Pantimilion arriving earlier in
the summer. However this is simply not enough.

Fabio Borini is being mooted to return to Wearside, with Liverpool looking to cash in on the £12M they saw fit to pay for him, however if stories are to be believed, while the move has been agreed between the two clubs, the player himself has not agreed to it, and has in fact travelled with the Liverpool squad on their pre-season tour of the USA.

Tenuous links with one or two overseas players aside, there is a worrying lack of news on Sunderland’s transfer activity.

Fans are praying for investment, a trouble free season would be a gift from God for any Sunderland fan, and the only thing we all know about the Premier League is that money talks – if you want quality, you have to pay for it!

If Sunderland want to ensure they improve next time around, the cheques must be written by the owner. There is no simple fix, and no magic wand, we need to get some seriously good players in quickly, and the only way to do it, is to invest.

Let’s see what happens, keep one eye on @e_sunderland on twitter, and @e_football for all things Premier League, and all things Sunderland.

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