When Sunderland claimed a crucial 2-1 aggregate lead during the first leg of the Championship playoff semi-final first leg, I couldn’t help but notice that joining in the celebrations with gusto was Jenson Seelt, the 2023 signing from PSV Eindhoven who was starting to show flashes of real promise before a serious injury interrupted his burgeoning Stadium of Light career.
Coventry City FC v Sunderland AFC - Sky Bet Championship Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images
Likewise, when we booked our place at Wembley thanks to Dan Ballard’s unforgettable late header in the second leg, Salis Abdul Samed was seen celebrating wildly on the touchline alongside Régis Le Bris — and this was a player who endured a very frustrating time at the Stadium of Light.
Samed is of course gone, and Seelt remains, but as one of a number of fringe players who are now attempting to make up for lost time, it’s a sad if inescapable truth that his immediate future may be uncertain as we prepare for our return to the Premier League.
Tough decisions await and big calls need to be made, but this is life in the big time.
A cursory glance at Sunderland’s squad shows that in several positions, we’re stacked two or three deep with potential options, but when it comes to two key issues: quality and availability, things become altogether trickier.
With the best will in the world and without any disrespect intended, there’s no chance that the likes of Nazariy Rusyn, Ian Poveda and Abdoullah Ba will be remotely close to the first team picture next season.
You could also make similar arguments for the likes of Timothée Pembélé, who spent last season on loan in France, Adil Aouchiche and Pierre Ekwah, who also plied their trade elsewhere as we went about gaining promotion back to the top flight, whereas Serbian prospect Milan Aleksić has already been linked with a loan move to Partizan Belgrade.
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In some ways, this isn’t the worst dilemma to have to grapple with.
One would assume that just as we were able to turn a decent profit on Isaac Lihadji, Kristjaan Speakman and his team will be able to offload some of these lads for good fees, thereby giving us more financial headroom and crucially ensuring that we’re only left with players who can contribute meaningfully next season.
Although it may be tempting to hold up some of them as evidence of a ‘hit and miss’ transfer policy, I don’t think there’s any time for recriminations. Some of these signings were wildcards that didn’t work and others were highly-rated prospects who simply never seemed to settle on Wearside.
In recent years, decisions have been made with the goal of getting us into the top flight and now that we’ve made it, the whole dynamic has shifted as a matter of necessity. Terms such as ‘comfort zone’ should be kept well away from Sunderland discourse this summer, and rightly so.
On the other hand, there are also players for whom things may look somewhat more promising when the Lads reconvene for pre-season training.
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Can Niall Huggins finally lay his injury demons to rest and stake a claim as genuine cover for Trai Hume at right back? Will a sterling season on loan at Hibernian open up more windows of opportunity for Nectar Triantis, and can the classy-yet-fragile Aji Alese haul himself back into contention?
Eliezer Mayenda’s evolution from one-time Hibernian loanee to possibly the most exciting Sunderland forward in years was one of the main talking points from last season and perhaps something similar will happen this summer — albeit with the knowledge that the step up in quality is colossal and there’ll hopefully be some real competition for places.
With that in mind, a fine line has to be walked between giving opportunities to those who deserve them and making the tough but necessary calls that’ll give us the best possible chance of survival.
Unless they’ve not conducted themselves properly, it’s never pleasant to see players depart a football club, particularly if there’s a feeling of unfulfilled potential, but just as we’ll need to up our game in terms of new signings, we need to pay equally close attention to those already here, and to judge who may or may not be coming on the next stage of the journey.