Sunderland Sporting Director Kristjaan Speakman has opened up on the club’s summer recruitment strategy, revealing he was very pleased with how it went. The Black Cats brought in 10 new players during the transfer window, which included big investments in the likes of Jack Clarke and Daniel Ballard.
Sunderland were coming off the back of winning promotion from League One at the fourth time of asking and so the pressure was on to build a squad capable of performing strongly in the Championship. And so far, it certainly looks as though they were able to do that as they sit fifth in the table after 10 matches.
Speaking on the latest episode of SAFC Unfiltered, Speakman spoke of the difficulties that a short summer brought, but detailed how the last 12-24 months of planning helped them work towards a very successful window in the eyes of the club.
READ MORE: Sunderland have made some 'smart' transfer business as new boys add 'freshness'
He said: “The first thing to note is it was an extremely short window for us. When you get promoted via our method, and obviously the season started a week earlier, it was a really condensed summer period. It was a condensed period in terms of physical preparation, the boys hardly got any time off really and we’ll try to adjust to that throughout the season to make sure we can maintain the sort of level required.
“Naturally, your squad composition comes up straight away because it’s a new level. I have to be honest with you, our recruitment in the previous windows was all designed to make sure we had players capable of playing Championship football. While we did make a number of signings, there’s still a lot of players from our first three or four games, it was basically the same team that played last year bar one or two spots because we believed in the group.
“Everything we’ve been doing has always been looking 12-24 months ahead and I think that is the primary part of my role, to try and future plan, future proof ourselves to a certain degree on what’s going on. We did have to do a lot of work in a short space of time, but are really pleased with what it has transpired. I sometimes say you don’t get the Disney storyline, you can’t work in exactly the right order you want to because you’re at the mercy of other clubs, player decisions etc.
“But I felt we were able to work in a really sequential order to target the players we wanted to sign permanently first, because we felt that was really, really important. Then we would supplement that with the relevant loans and other positions. In the end I think we only took two loans that were not loans to permanent. We don’t want to rely on that market too much, we want to have our own players, we want people invested in what’s going on here that are part of being at Sunderland.
“We’re really pleased with it but I said this in a previous interview, I think it might’ve been Tony’s press conference. Our transfer business will always draw scrutiny due to the size of the club we are the number of eyes and ears in obviously what goes on. We have to be accountable for that and I have no issue with it but we’re really happy with the squad. We have a small issue at the minute as Ross and Ellis are both out, that draws some attention.
“For us we’re more than comfortable with the group that we’ve got, our model was to design a team to play 4-3-3, have the flexibility to play 3-4-3 and 3-5-2. We started the season playing 3-5-2 but that was just down to how we felt the best way of winning those particular games against that particular opposition. Had it been different opposition we may have started with a 4-3-3 and therefore we’ve got two players for every position.
“The only position we don’t have two players in is left back, where we’ve got Dennis, and Aji Alese who can cover there. We’ve just been a little bit unfortunate with that but we’ve got every faith in the other players to be able to play our identity and something that Tony’s 100% on board with.”
READ NEXT
- Sunderland hoping for a double injury boost when they resume their season against Preston
- Sunderland's Aji Alese admits he has technology to thank for his first senior goal
- Sunderland's 'soldiers' stand up to be counted in battling draw at Watford
- Goal hero Jewison Bennette's Sunderland switch is an 'amazing story', says Tony Mowbray
- Watford boss Rob Edwards left 'frustrated' as Sunderland twice come from behind to claim a point
