Sunderland players and fans have, historically, been able to look forward to a relaxed early summer.
We haven’t traditionally been too concerned about competitions like the World Cup or the European Championships because our players have so rarely been involved. It was 2002 when we last had substantial representation on the football world’s biggest stage, with the Republic of Ireland’s Niall Quinn, Kevin Kilbane and Jason McAteer accounting for half of the Sunderland contingent.
So, going this World
Cup campaign is very much uncharted waters as we suddenly find ourselves with twelve representatives at the planet’s most prestigious competition. Of the Premier League sides, only Arsenal and Manchester City have more players selected by competing nations — even Real Madrid can’t match us!
The players we have featuring at international level in this competition are Robin Roefs, Lutsharel Geertruida, Omar Alderete, Granit Xhaka, Habib Diarra. Noah Sadiki, Chemsdine Talbi, Nilson Angulo, Brian Brobbey, Wilson Isidor, Simon Adingra and Arthur Masuaku.
Isidor is the only player who was already at Sunderland twelve months ago; the fact that he’s been joined in the competition by all those new faces is testament to the work of the scouting and recruitment network that Sunderland have in place.
As closely as I follow football, there were only a couple of names on that list that I would have recognised before they joined us, but our raids on the French, German, Belgian, Dutch and Spanish leagues have paid off handsomely, resulting in a squad which qualified for European football for roughly the price of one Woltemade, one Elanga and a Murphy!
The fact that these players were identified and persuaded to join Kyril Louis-Dreyfus’ Roker Renaissance reflects so positively on the work being done behind the scenes to analyse prospective new additions.
What’s equally impressive is the quiet professional manner in which discussions took place, and often, the first indication that these players were even on the radar came when they were pictured in the shirt or with the scarf at the Academy of Light.
With Florent Ghisolfi now firmly established in the recruitment hot seat, his range of contacts should prove invaluable in bringing in the quality of player now needed to improve an already impressive roster.
It would be difficult to argue with the fact that this is most talented squad that I have witnessed in over half a century of following the Lads (although I am sure some will take issue with that opinion!).
In the wake of European qualification, I wasn’t overly excited for this World Cup, but seeing our players taking to the field for their national teams has completely reinvigorated my enthusiasm. It probably isn’t age-appropriate for someone in their sixties to put up a World Cup wall chart or buy a Panini sticker book, but I’m close to it!
I’ve also particularly enjoyed listening to our very own Guy Mowbray forcing Alan ‘Mary Poppins’ Shearer to grudgingly discuss the number of Sunderland players taking part. Having spent all season avoiding the analysis of our games on Match of the Day, you can hear Tommy Sørenson’s favourite penalty taker almost choking on the faint words of praise that have to be prised out of him.
With the Premier League fixtures being released on Friday, hummel kit releases to look forward to and the knowledge that we have a recruitment structure perfectly capable of bolstering the squad for our Europa League campaign, it’s shaping up to be a summer of fun if you’re a Mackem!
