Alex Charlton says…
If you’d told me this was how our transfer window would’ve played out, I’d have laughed in your face.
Where do I even start? Well, I guess it would have to be with our new captain, Granit Xhaka.
He’s already influencing games but it’s the passion he’s shown that stands out the most. That roar is infectious and you can tell he genuinely loves being here. He spurs the team on, leads by example, and I believe he can get us over the line in tight matches.
My biggest concern was at the back, and there was a time
when I was worried that we wouldn’t bring in enough quality. However, it looks like we’ve signed well, and Nordi Mukiele, Omar Alderete and Reinildo already look like decent signings.
I have to be honest that I hadn’t seen a lot of our signings play before, but I’ve been so impressed by the likes of Habib Diarra and Robin Roefs. The former is just pure class and the latter already looks like an absolute steal.
What’s promising is that this team has only just been put together, so once they’ve had more time to gel, they’ll only be stronger.
Recruitment has been smart and calculated and it genuinely feels like we’ve executed our plan to perfection. It couldn’t have gone any better. I’m feeling very positive about the season ahead.
James Elliott says…
This has been an unforgettable transfer window for the club and it continues to be a fantastic time to be a Sunderland fan.
When we won the play off final in May, I thought we would look to bring in five or six solid signings to reinforce key positions across the pitch, but never in a million years did I think we would recruit to the level we have, both on and off the pitch.
For me, our midfield recruits will be the most exciting to watch this season.
Habib Diarra, Noah Sadiki and Granit Xhaka are a joy to watch as they ooze a mixture of experience, potential and class. Chris Rigg and Dan Neil will get their opportunities this season — especially when AFCON comes around — but for now, our stacked midfield means they can take their time to adapt to life in the top division.
Looking ahead, we’ve given ourselves a real chance of staying up. I’m delighted the club haven’t adopted the ‘rinse and repeat’ approach of buying the best Championship eleven and have instead pivoted to a refreshing and exciting recruitment strategy.
Under the steady hand of Régis Le Bris, I think we’ll have enough in us to stay up this season. With all the positivity around the club, we will be looking up more than down this season and I can see us ruffling the feathers of the Premier League teams who’ve lacked quality in recent years.
Malc Dugdale says…
I’ve been hugely impressed with the recruitment. It’s surpassed all of my expectations and it shows the club is really having a go at staying in this league — and potentially achieving more in this season and others to come.
There’s been significant investment and a solid strategy appears to be being followed, giving us laymen and fans confidence the expensive ‘piss taking parties’ from the past aren’t being entertained.
Although we haven’t signed many household names who are proven in the Premier League (other than Granit Xhaka, who was a massive statement of intent and ambition), we’ve signed players for sizeable but not silly fees, with experience in the top leagues of Europe, as well as the Champions League. Many of them are experienced internationals — to the point that we’ll miss quite a few of them when major international competitions come around — but that’s a nice problem to have.
Truth be told, we won’t know how good many of these are until we bed them in and get cracking, but based on the contributions from the earlier signings (Robin Roefs, Enzo Le Fée, Granit Xhaka, Chemsdine Talbi and others) once they all do get up to speed, we can hopefully expect the best of the crop to move onward and upward, and for the others to create some real competition across the board.
As many of the Roker Report team have said, all we can ask is that the owners give it their best shot at building from our promotion.
What I’ve seen is way more than I expected, and I hope for the owners, the fans and everyone involved with the club, we’re all rewarded for what we’ve put in.
