FOR much of the summer break, Sunderland's sporting director, Kristjaan Speakman, was the subject of sustained criticism.
Taking forever to appoint a head coach. Failing, yet again, to sign an experienced centre-forward. Sticking rigidly to ‘the model’, even though it had been found badly wanting in the previous campaign. As the most senior and visible backroom figure, the Black Cats’ sporting director became a lightning rod for the club’s perceived multiple failings.
Fast forward two or three months, though, and the dial has shifted. Sunderland are sitting in second position in the Championship, boasting a vibrant squad full of exciting young players, led by an ambitious, insightful head coach with clear plans of how he wants his team to play. Jack Clarke has gone, but has barely been missed. There’s even an experienced striker about to arrive as a free agent.
Not all of that is down to Speakman, of course. But some of it is. So having questioned the abilities of the sporting director when things were going badly, it’s only fair to acknowledge the successes that have led to such an impressive start to the season.
Some Sunderland supporters will always remain wary. The emotional fallout from the Black Cats Bar fiasco continues to cut deep and the concentration of power in Speakman’s hands, particularly when it comes to identifying and signing players, will always have the potential to create problems. Slowly but surely, though, there is a growing recognition that much of what Sunderland are doing is working. And as we have learned over the course of the last few years, with the way the club is now structured, that undoubtedly starts at the top.
Recruitment, so divisive at times, has been Speakman’s biggest success. Yes, Sunderland could have done with another forward this summer, although the anticipated arrival of Aaron Connolly might deliver the kind of attacking competition that has been lacking for a while now. But cast your eye over the rest of the squad, and it is impossible not to be impressed with the quality of the club’s transfer work, both in terms of the standard of players that have been signed and the financial value that has been added as a result.
Trai Hume. Signed from Linfield for less than £250,000, now worth millions. Dennis Cirkin. Plucked from Tottenham reserves, potentially now worth even more than Hume. Dan Ballard. Sourced from Arsenal’s reserves and now valued at more than £20m. Romaine Mundle. Spotted at Standard Liege and signed for around £2m, increasingly now looking like a like-for-like replacement for Clarke.
Then, of course, there is the jewel in the crown in terms of recent recruitment, Jobe Bellingham. The teenager was persuaded to leave his beloved Birmingham City for a fee of around £3m in the summer of 2023 and is already being lauded as one of the most exciting prospects in the whole of the Football League. Sunderland turned down eight-figure bids for him over the summer, both a statement of intent and confirmation of just how highly he is already rated.
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Perhaps, one day, he will be playing for England alongside Chris Rigg, whose retention this summer is another major feather in Speakman’s cap. In the past, Sunderland found it impossible to hold on to their best young talent when the Premier League big boys came calling. With Rigg, it was different. Yes, leading clubs including Manchester United and Newcastle United made offers. But Speakman persuaded Rigg his development was best served by staying at Sunderland. Admittedly, there would have been lots of different factors behind the 17-year-old’s decision to sign his first professional contract with the Black Cats. But the environment Speakman has pioneered, with a huge emphasis on youth development and fast-tracking talented youngsters into the first team, must surely have figured prominently in his thoughts.
To gel everything together, of course, you still the need right head coach. Alex Neil, something of an ‘old-school’ British manager, was never going to be an ideal fit. Tony Mowbray was closer to what was required, but ultimately the Teessider was unable to get completely on board with Speakman’s recruitment operation. Michael Beale? Let’s gloss over that as quickly as possible.
This summer’s appointment of Beale’s permanent successor was always going to be critically important, and having spent so much time and energy pursuing Will Still, Speakman could easily have panicked when his number-one choice opted to join Lens instead of crossing the Channel for Wearside.
Instead, he ignored the background noise and pursued what he regarded as the next-best option, a little-known French coach who had spent the previous season getting relegated to Ligue 2. The populist choice? Hardly. The right one? These remain early days, but all the signs so far suggest Le Bris is exactly what Sunderland needed to drive them forward this season.
Off the pitch, the 48-year-old has eradicated the sense of chaos that was swirling around the Stadium of Light for most of the summer and rapidly endeared himself to a fanbase that had grown tired of empty gimmicks and meaningless platitudes.
On the field, Le Bris has retained some of the swashbuckling attacking-midfield play that was so exciting under Mowbray, but quickly allied it to a much more structured and methodical approach when Sunderland do not have the ball. Had any of his predecessors been in charge during the second half of last weekend’s Wear-Tees derby, it is hard to imagine they would have been able to keep Middlesbrough out. With Le Bris at the helm, the Black Cats proved impenetrable.
Clearly, there will be tougher times ahead. With so many attractive assets, Speakman will do well to stand firm when the transfer window reopens. He hasn’t always delivered recruitment successes, there have been one or two duds along the way. Ultimately, though, he has overseen the construction of the most exciting, valuable and hopefully effective Sunderland squad for decades. For that, he deserves considerable credit.
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