Sunderland are stepping up their preparations for the Premier League campaign following the play-off final win
Kristjaan Speakman says Sunderland will stick to their values as they prepare to return to the Premier League after an eight-year absence, and has made clear that they won't be making any decisions that jeopardise the club's long-term financial stability.
Sunderland have already broken their transfer record to convert Enzo Le Fée's loan from AS Roma into a permanent deal, and the club's sporting director said they are fully aware of the need to invest to bridge the significant gap between the two divisions.
Speakman, head coach Régis Le Bris and the club's recruitment team have held meetings in the aftermath of the Wembley win to draw up transfer shortlists, and the work now begins in earnest. While the club will not deviate from its strategy of investing primarily in young talent with significant potential to develop, Speakman has hinted that the scale of the challenge next season means there will be some flexibility.
"We're always trying to get the balance right between being prepared for whichever league you might be in and we've tried to do that," Speakman said.
"Naturally as a play-off winning team you're behind where other clubs might be, but we're fast-tracking that and catching up.
"We're looking to improve and build a team that is capable of staying in the Premier League, I think the objective is fairly clear.
“Everyone will point to the statistics as to how difficult it is to stay in the Premier League and we're fully aware of that, we're not naive. Our strategy in getting to the Premier League and the solutions we needed, to the ones we need to stay there, will be different. That's work we're doing at the minute but ultimately, we're going to stick to our values. We need to have a team that the community and city is proud of, we've build that in the current team and we have to have that in the Premier League.
"When we came to the club we had a multi-year strategy about how we'd able to get back to the Premier League, and it's about continuing that way of thinking. We're going to make decisions that are in the best interests of the club to try and retain our position in the Premier League, while also making decisions that don't negatively impact the club in the long term. I think we've seen before at Sunderland that if you don't consider those factors, how negative that can be in the long term. I don't think it's necessarily anything different in terms of our principles, but there are clearly key decisions coming up around making sure we have a squad capable of achieving our objective of staying up."
Sunderland are open to adding top-tier experience to their squad to help the adaption period, but the core of the team who won promotion will be given a chance to prove themselves in pre-season and beyond. Speakman made clear, however, that the club fully understands the scale of the jump between the two divisions.
"We did add Championship experience when we stepped up [from League One], and they helped us on and off the pitch," Speakman said.
"The solutions are always different. In our context, from a footballing perspective, you're moving up two or three leagues really in terms of the level. So we need to make sure that we have the right level of player in the team, with the right game experience. We're acutely aware of that, we want to retain our principles and values, but sometimes of course you have to tweak the needle a little bit. You have to fully understand the environment you're going into. We were able to sign some players who we felt could adapt to the EFL, some people questioned us but thankfully we were proved right with some many of those players.. that Chris Rigg could play, Jobe Bellingham could play, Romaine Mundle could play. We have to make sure we can apply the same principle to the next league, but it doesn't necessarily mean they'll have the same background [Premier League experience].
"We feel we've got loads of talented players and it's on them to come back for pre-season in the best condition possible to be able to play Premier League football, and our challenge is to then build the right balance from there. We'll obviously be signing new players into the team, to ensure that we have a Premier League that can be competitive."
With Speakman confirming that the club will again look to run a lean squad between transfer window, it looks as if the focus this summer will be on adding a handful of high-calibre additions capable of immediately challenging for a first-team place.
"We've always advocated for a smaller squad in terms of day-to-day on the training ground," Speakman said.
"You can have a larger squad where some players are on loan to develop, but day to day we've always gone with quite a small group. Régis and I see that the same way, so we won't have an inflated squad. Having players who feel they're within touching distance of the pitch has been really important for us and that's been part of our success."
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"I don't want to talk about individual players, that's not consistent with what we've done as a club," Speakman said.
"We have to try and find the right players for the team, we've got profiles and requirements for every position. We've been really specific about that so it's then about putting the jigsaw together and it will involve different profiles of players, different countries and leagues."
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