Dear Roker Report,
Immediately after our wonderful Wembley win, there was huge speculation about how many new players we needed in order to turn our team into one that would survive in the Premier League.
Few, if any, suggested it would be fourteen, and it’s also unlikely anyone thought we’d then spend £160 million to sign them, and then be able to watch them take six points from three games to put us into a European place!
But there’s a downside to all this euphoria: the sad break-up of the promotion squad. Jobe and
Tommy Watson had as good as gone even before kick off but poor old Paddy Roberts became the first of them to leave when he didn’t really want to.
It’s likely there’ll be a few more after Régis Le Bris registers his twenty five-man squad and loses many of the guys who got us here in the first place. We’re all going to feel bad about the process that’s already in its early stages, and sadly, we need to get used to seeing good guys having to move on, because it’ll have to be normal if we’re ever going to have a chance of our dreams becoming reality.
Our squad will need two Premier League-ready players to fill every position, plus a third goalkeeper and two utility players — maybe this is where the twenty five came from in the first place?
A complication is that eight of these must be ‘homegrown’ and it’s a surprise that nationality isn’t a factor as players need only be registered with an English club for three seasons before their 21st birthday to qualify.
U21s can play for the first team without being registered so aren’t part of this group. Eliezer Mayenda, Noah Sadiki and Chemsdine Talbi all qualify for this season; clearly, Premier League-ready U21s are a huge bonus.
I don’t envy Le Bris’ job of picking his best twenty five and I think it would be a mistake to pick eight players simply because they qualify as ‘homegrown’. They must also be good enough and I worry that Dan Neil, Simon Moore, Aji Alese, Dennis Cirkin and Simon Moore might fit into that category.
The quality of these players will determine how each team performs and with top teams easily playing sixty games a season, every one of the twenty five-man squad must be the best they can afford.
Our squad must be under constant review, using the transfer windows to progressively strengthen it. This’ll inevitably lead to players leaving — not for doing anything wrong but because there’s somebody else who can do it even better!
The high level of ruthlessness needed to do this will take a lot of getting used to as the fans see their favourites regularly replaced.
Is this a price worth paying to be top of the league? Probably!
Haway the Lads!
Peter Tyrrell
Ed’s Note [Phil]: Hi, Peter. Thank you for your letter.
In my opinion, nothing illustrates the step up in quality we’ve taken during the summer more impressively than the fact that Enzo Le Fée — an incredibly talented player and one of the heroes of the playoffs — is no longer an automatic starter for Sunderland.
That just shows how ruthless we were in the transfer market, adding upgrades in various positions and giving Régis Le Bris the kind of strength in depth he’ll doubtless need if we’re to enjoy a competitive season.
I fully appreciate that it might be somewhat sad to see so many of our promotion-winning players either leave or find themselves on the fringes of of the squad, but it was absolutely needed and I fully back the decisions taken by the club during the transfer window.
It shows that those making the key decisions aren’t messing about and that they’re clearly serious about turning Sunderland AFC into a competitive top flight side, but the efforts of those who helped us get promoted at Wembley in 2022 and 2025 should always be appreciated — and rightly so.
Dear Roker Report,
I read with interest that the situation for Jobe at Borussia Dortmund is somewhat ‘frustrating’ as things currently stand.
I’m not knocking the player at all, but I said just after he had been sold that it was a cracking bit of business by our club — and I pointed out that there were quite a few games last season where Jobe was, to be blunt, ineffective and ponderous.
The problem was that Dortmund got carried away with ‘Jude MK2’ and I’m genuinely surprised that such a big club seemingly bought into the hype and fancy surrounding him. He’s absolutely a very good player, but he’s gone to a club full of Champions League players and has only ever been proven at Championship level, and was quite inconspicuous at that level at times.
I’m well aware some players can make enormous leaps and bridge gaps in levels of football, but there was always a doubt that Jobe was this swashbuckling midfielder that a lot of people would have us believe. I absolutely do believe he’s been the victim of his brother’s amazing success and I also believe other clubs felt as if he was from the same production line.
I’ve said this so many times in the past, but during the past two to three decades, there are very few players who’ve left this club and gone on to glory.
The grass always seems greener, but look at Jack Clarke and Ross Stewart and where they’re plying their trade! The very same may be said for young Tommy Watson come the end of the season, as he hasn’t featured for Brighton as yet and they’re currently struggling, albeit a huge amount of the season left.
I wonder whether young Jobe now feels that a few more seasons with us could’ve benefitted him more and in fact, he may have ended up staying with us. But then again, he may well have had to warm the bench for this squad as things currently stand.
Peter Milton
Ed’s Note [Phil]: Hi, Peter. Thank you for getting in touch.
The Jobe question is an interesting one, because despite what’s accepted as a difficult start to his career at Borussia Dortmund, I really do believe he’s got the talent and the mindset to go a long way in football — and let’s face it: his move to Germany was mapped out months before it happened, and there was no sense of bad feelings when he left Sunderland after helping us to promotion.
Being the younger brother of one of England’s most talked-about footballers has doubtless been tricky for him at times, but I’ve got nothing but good things to say about him, and I also feel he could’ve certainly made the step up into the Premier League with Sunderland.
Sadly, we’ll never know for sure!
