Was It A Successful January Window For Sunderland?

Andrew Smithson says…

I’d have to say that it was another good window for the club, all things considered.

Few transfers seem to run smoothly but it appears as if a lot of hard work has gone on behind the scenes — both in terms of strengthening Règis Le Bris’ options and with regards helping one or others go out and get games elsewhere.

I hope to see a lot of the outgoings advance their careers and do well for themselves, and will always retain fond memories of the ones that were crucial to our rise back up the leagues.

It was pretty clear that most of them needed to move on, whereas I must admit that I was surprised by the Simon Adingra situation, as it feels as if he had been tracked by the club for some time so I’d assumed they would be keen to give him longer to sake a claim. At least we were decisive and avoided a potentially nasty situation where a well-paid player is just left to rot — by moving quickly and helping fix up a decent move for him, I think everyone benefits.

The way the Lutsharel Geertruida news was handled felt encouraging too, as it showed a different side to the club.

It’s great to see our resources being used sensibly and wages freed up where appropriate, and I hope that a lot of the switches made help set us up for another positive summer recruitment drive, but in the meantime there are points to be played for and Sunderland did try to do right by the player but also look after themselves and keep hold of an important figure.

This apparent professionalism and clarity leads to a better atmosphere around the squad and I daresay was a factor in the three new arrivals deciding to come he also.

Time will tell whether these lads come good, but you can understand at least why they’ve been brought in and be confident that they’ll be given the right environment to try and make a mark. His stats and fee suggest Nilson Angulo will be put into the side fairly swiftly as well, so whilst the future has been taken into account, it isn’t at the cost of the present. 

Going back to Adingra, while his purchase now looks as if it didn’t work out, you could still mark it as a success in comparison to previous ways of doing things.

By spending money on younger names with some sort of resale value, you’re giving yourself some sort of protection because we all know that not every deal will work out, and this wider approach to plotting team building is helping turn the club around.

Arthur Masuaku, for example — brought in as cover and longer needed now that Dennis Cirkin is fit — was presumably able to find a suitable destination because he was on a fair contract and not some sort of albatross wage that encouraged him to hang around and rock the boat.

I doubt we’ll ever get to know fully what goes on in terms of transfers — and all sorts of things could’ve fallen through or changed for all we know — but the evidence we do have suggests a continued desire to move forward at pace, but not in a way that costs the club its very existence.

I like what’s been done in January and I reckon things are already being mapped out for subsequent windows…

Ciaran McKenna says…

The window was maybe slightly quieter than I expected, but definitely not one to complain about. 

The January window has become known for its inflated values and it was no different this year. The club were clear throughout this period that they wouldn’t rush into anything due to these higher prices, but would take their chance if it came — and I think this was a big reason for the focus on outgoings. 

Within these outgoings, there’s a range of emotions but firstly, you have the transfers that are positive.

The loaning of young lads like Tom Lavery, Trey Ogunsuyi and Ben Middlemas will hopefully prove a good learning curve for them, giving them the brutal first hand experience that lower league English football provides, whereas the sales of players like Adil Aouchiche, Jay Matete and Joe Anderson were slightly different.

It never really clicked for them on Wearside, so an alternative path was provided. They’ve all shown glimpses of talent and I’m glad that the club was able to find them each a move.

Then you have the ones that sting; players leaving that were crucial in our progress through the leagues.

Anthony Patterson’s loan is good for him as he needs minutes, but it was still tough to see him go. At least he’ll return in the summer, but I can’t say the same for others. Dan Neil and Patrick Roberts were two excellent players for us and without them we wouldn’t be where we are today. Part of me would’ve liked to have seen them given more of a chance, but it wasn’t appropriate.

Then we have the incomings.

Jocelin Ta Bi appears to be one for the future and is still a few weeks away from being involved in the matchday squad, but Régis Le Bris and the directors clearly see something in him, so I hope we can tap into that.

Goalkeeper Melker Ellborg looks to be a great signing. He was being looked at by many clubs in the summer, so I was glad to see us snap him up. With the successes of Robin Roefs, he might not see too many minutes but he should provide good competition to motivate Roefs to maintain his high standards as well as being able to step in if needed.

Nilson Angulo is probably the biggest of the three.

A young, talented player who seems to be the sort to get us fans on the edge of our seats. He’s done really well in Belgium but of course, there’s a skill gap to the Premier League. Noah Sadiki made that step up brilliantly and I hope Angulo can do the same. 

Signing Angulo only occurred due to the loaning out of Simon Adingra.

I know it hadn’t really clicked for him since we signed him in the summer, but I wasn’t expecting him to leave. There were definitely signs of potential and his goal against Leeds was terrific, but as the club said, they’ll take the chance when it comes and that’s what they did. Hopefully, Adingra will find his form in France and Angulo will be successful for us.

Overall, I think this window has been really positive.

Yes, some of the players leaving is a shame but the club is evolving and that is clear from this transfer window. Hopefully the signings get up to speed as soon as possible and can benefit us for the remainder of the season.

Malc Dugdale says…

I’m pretty happy with the business done but I do feel we could’ve done a little more in a couple of places. That said, it’s a hard market to work in over January and by the end I was happy with our level of activity. 

In goal, we’ve given Anthony Patterson a chance to play on loan. We’ve also brought in another prospect and we feel pretty solid with Robin Roefs for sure.

In defence, we’ve also let some underused players go in one way or another — including Leo Hjelde and Arthur Masuaku — but I would’ve liked news about an extension for Dennis Cirkin and hopefully that’ll come soon. 

Out wide, we’ve done some great business, bringing in some young and more established experience while cycling out some options which haven’t worked as well as we all hoped, including Simon Adingra. Patrick Roberts also looks happy at Birmingham, so we wish him all the best. 

Only time will tell on the new faces out wide but based on the feedback, we may have some real talent in Nilson Angulo and Jocelin Ta Bi, and we still have others to compete in Chemsdine Talbi (who was excellent at home on Monday), Romaine Mundle and Bertrand Traoré when he’s fit. 

The one place I fancied more reinforcement was central midfield, but with Lutsharel Geertruida’s exit being quashed, hopefully he can cover for Granit Xhaka with Habib Diarra and others helping in various ways. 

If we keep playing as we did against Burnley, the captain coming back when he’s good and ready is fine, but we have no Dan Neil, and some tough fixtures coming up.

If the right players aren’t out there, we don’t need more baggage, so hopefully we’ll be OK in the next couple of games, get Xhaka back and then really kick on during the final ten to twelve games of the season with a squad which on the whole is more balanced now than it was at Christmas.