John Wilson says…
I’m loving how proactive we’ve been in the transfer market.
In the past, transfer windows have been painfully frustrating. Who are we trying to get? Why has no one come in yet? But not this time. Every day is a new day, and brings new excitement online.
The only caveat to this brilliant start to shaping our Premier League squad is that if it ended now, it would be nowhere near good enough. So I’m sure the backroom team have many fingers in many pies, and they need to be seized for us to have any confidence in competing this season.
At the end of 2024/2025, I think most people (apart from being joyously proud) thought that the spine of the team needed strengthening and to date we’ve only done that in the middle of the park.
They showed their ambition early on by showing they were looking to upgrade the goalkeeper — an area not many of us would have seen as a weakness — although the more I think about it, the more I think it is.
Now that Djordje Petrović has seemingly gone to Bournemouth, that’s two top keepers we’ve missed out on, so obviously we hope more fingers are in more pies! But I also want to see a central defender and an attacker, and if one or more of these has Premier League experience, so much the better.
I’ve been very impressed with the way we’ve been amongst the early movers in the market— which just shows the work that’s been going on in the background for a long time.
With an experienced director of football pulling strings on the continent, and especially in the French, Belgium and Italian markets, we’ve come a long way in that I expect incomings soon.
Exciting times indeed, and hopefully enough pies to go around.
Ligue 1 winner with LOSC Lille
More than 100 apps for @Atleti
49 caps for Mozambique
A player with serious pedigree… ⤵️
— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) July 8, 2025
Malc Dugdale says…
It’s 8 July and we’ve already made several signings that many thought we couldn’t and wouldn’t— that’s great progress.
My view is that the club leadership have a clear view of where they want to be this month (and well into next), and I can’t see how Sunderland may not at least be on track with that plan, if not ahead of it.
There are fans of other teams on the socials who are openly raving about our progress and the quality we’re signing, especially as a new side at the top level. If you can’t see that as a positive compared to past years, or looking at what our peers who came up with us have achieved in this domain, you probably need new spectacles.
Just like the last-minute winners in the playoffs, we’re historically the club who lose out on all these signings to other clubs who sneak in and pip us at the post. We may have lost a goalkeeper to daft wages in Saudi Arabia, but other than that we’ve clearly been leading the field in our recruitment quality and pace.
On that, I’d like to see the goalkeeper hokey-cokey sorted out, as that’s dragging on and must be making Anthony Patterson a nervous wreck.
It goes without saying that we wouldn’t have won at Wembley without his two saves — which were both as good as a goal at the other end — so if this position is a hire that runs on into August and gives Patto a few games early season, maybe that’s not a bad thing for the lad.
With Djordje Petrović apparently now headed to the south coast rather than Roker, that’s maybe something we should keep close to our chest until we have it over the line.
We do need more firepower up front, and we’ve been linked with a few names which are also in the bracket that Mackems wouldn’t have dreamed of in the past, but we need at least one of them in the door this month, as well as more backup in central defence to fill the Chris Mepham-shaped gap.
Again, we’ve had links aired for the back four (Charlie Cresswell being a long running one) but they mean nothing until the ‘scarf picture’, or as it is now, the mini video clip of the medical and the emotional interview.
So, a few more bits to do in my view but we’re going well and the main issue will soon be who we ship out rather than who we bring in.
We won’t sign every player we want to but I’d like to see us balance that by Régis Le Bris giving the top 20-30% of our Championship playoff winners a chance to show if they can step up, and finding first team football at other levels for most of the others.
That’s already started and I think it’ll really pick up over the next few weeks.
Phil West says…
I’m generally encouraged by the transfer business we’ve done so far, with the latest addition in former Atlético Madrid defender Reinildo adding some real pedigree and experience to the ranks — something we need to keep at the forefront of our minds as we continue to reshape the squad ahead of our Premier League return.
Habib Diarra and Noah Sadiki can rightly be filed under ‘exciting signings’ given their reputations at their former clubs, and I’m eager to see how they fit in at Sunderland.
Elsewhere, the seemingly imminent signing of Chemsdine Talbi — a player around whom the consensus seems to be broadly positive albeit with references to ‘rawness’ and room for improvement — feels like the kind of left-field addition that those making the decisions on recruitment feel confident enough to make, and they’ve certainly earned that right.
In terms of outgoings, Adil Aouchiche’s loan move to Aberdeen represents a great opportunity for him, and if he can find his peak form at Pittodrie, he’s got every chance of becoming a real favourite with the Dons’ famously rowdy support.
More exits will undoubtedly follow in order to streamline an expansive squad, but I have a feeling that many of the fringe players will be leaving on loan as opposed to permanently, as we may find clubs willing to take a gamble on a permanent deal quite thin on the ground, so that’s something to keep an eye on.
In terms of what’s to come, there’s still a lot of work needed to ensure that we can give ourselves the best possible chance of survival next season, and as we gear up for the first games of our pre-season schedule, I’d love to see more transfers completed as swiftly as possible.
To counterbalance the investment in youth (which is no bad thing and could serve us very well for 2025/2026 and beyond) we need at least three players through the door who can bring Premier League experience and overall, I believe we’re still five or six players shy of what you would call a ‘complete’ window.
Two central defenders, a right back, a right winger and another striker feel like a must.
Additionally, speculation continues to swirl around the goalkeeping situation, with Chelsea stopper Djordje Petrović seemingly off to Bournemouth, so it’ll be interesting to see whether we continue to pursue a backup or an alternative to Anthony Patterson.
Some of the names with whom we’ve been linked do feel somewhat out of our range whereas others may be viable targets, but one thing is abundantly clear: they’re kicking things into a higher gear and recognising that in order to have a fighting chance of survival, we can’t cut corners or look for stopgap signings.
Striking that balance between youth and experience is absolutely essential and as has been eluded to on the website recently, it very much feels like the next stage of the process — something that’s both exciting and intriguing in equal measure.
Sunderland AFC
Tom Albrighton says…
Firstly, it’s nice to see Sunderland so active early in the window as to offer us an opportunity to bed in the squad.
It’s not a secret that we need a lot of bodies of a different profile and calibre to some we already have. Although that’ll make for an inflated squad in the short term, it’ll also give us a really good chance to balance it as the months tick by.
What pleases me the most is how differently we’re going about our business.
This isn’t just because we’re spending big fees as I’ve been a massive proponent of our business since Kyril Louis-Dreyfus took the reins, but because at least we aren’t making the mistakes other teams have before us.
When you look at our signings in Premier League terms, we haven’t spent massively but it’s a sizable outlay for a newly promoted side.
What’s pleasing is the fact these aren’t typical signings, as we saw last season from the three promoted teams, vast sums were spent on players that were simply ‘the best of the rest’ around England. Signing a mixture of up-and-coming European-based players as well the experience of individuals like Reinildo shows we’re still happy to mix it up and maximise opportunities from further-flung corners.
Of course, this could all blow up in our face but given that it’s almost set in stone that filling your team with Championship A-listers and Premier League relegation fodder rarely equates to survival, at least we’ll be trying something different to stay afloat.
Going forward, I imagine we’ll splash some additional cash, most likely on at least one more winger, a centre back and a goalkeeper before we quiet down for a bit.
We’ll likely kick back into gear once we’ve cleared the decks before adding a bit of top level or Premier League experience closer to the end of the window should the opportunities present themselves — something along the lines of signing the likes of Chris Mepham or similar if they’re shown the exit door by their parent club.
Whether it all works or not is a different story but as long as the players and fans maintain the connection they’ve enjoyed for some time, if all goes well we might just manage to defy expectations.