Think back to those days when Speakman first arrived on Wearside from Birmingham City, and it is like looking at a completely different club. It would be another two months before Kyril Louis-Dreyfus’ takeover was officially confirmed, Lee Johnson was arriving as manager and in his first transfer window in charge of recruitment, Speakman presided over the signing of Carl Winchester from Forest Green and Ross Stewart from Ross County. There wasn’t much talk of Granit Xhaka back then.
By his own admission, Speakman was walking into a club that had been hollowed out in the days of Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven. The first team was underperforming. The recruitment operation was not fit for purpose. Revenues had flatlined and a succession of head coaches were proving incapable of getting Sunderland out of League One.
Speakman’s appointment, after a successful 14-year spell at Birmingham, can be pinpointed as one of the key moments when that began to change. Here was an ambitious, visionary figure at the cutting edge of recruitment and data analysis, tasked with dragging Sunderland into football’s brave new world.
The statement that accompanied his arrival spelled out the direction the club wanted him to lead them in: “Speakman will lead SAFC’s overall football programme, including player identification, development and acquisitions across the first team and academy. He will also take primary responsibility for reviewing and implementing new strategies to develop the club’s footballing infrastructure, with an emphasis on data analytics and innovation, and providing a clear pathway from the younger age groups to the first team.”
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Straight away, that felt very different, and while the management speak might have become something of a running joke throughout Speakman’s reign, there is no doubt that under his leadership, Sunderland became an example for other ambitious clubs to follow rather than an embarrassment plastered across Netflix.
‘The model’ became the core of Speakman’s stewardship, derided by a lot of supporters initially and the cause of friction that led to the departure of at least two head coaches, but generally now acknowledged as the key catalyst for the journey that has seen the Black Cats celebrate two promotions.
It hardly seems ground-breaking now. Sign young, unproven talent from markets that are often overlooked for a knock-down fee. Develop that talent within the senior group, then either sell for a profit or reap the benefits of an improved performer in the first team. Pretty much everyone is doing that nowadays, but when Sunderland first set off on the course Speakman had set for them, it felt hugely unconventional.
It proved hugely successful though, with the list of players signed under Speakman standing as a testament to the quality of his work. Jobe Bellingham, signed for £3m, sold for £30m. Dan Ballard, plucked from Arsenal’s reserves. Trai Hume, bought for £150,000 from Linfield. And that’s before we even get to last summer’s remarkable transfer window that saw Sunderland bring in the likes of Nordi Mukiele, Omar Alderete, Noah Sadiki and Habib Diarra to enable them to flourish in the top-flight.
Speakman was still heavily involved in Sunderland’s work last summer, but the arrival of Florent Ghisolfi as director of football had changed the dynamic in the Stadium of Light boardroom and it increasingly felt as though power was being taken out of Speakman’s hands.
There were no big clashes, but Louis-Dreyfus’ appointment of Ghisolfi to a role that clearly strayed into areas that had previously been Speakman’s domain felt telling. Ghisolfi’s European expertise and extensive overseas contacts book speaks to where Sunderland have headed, and the areas Louis-Dreyfus feels will be vital in the next stage of the club’s development.
It feels harsh to say it, but perhaps they have now outgrown Speakman. With Ghisolfi already in place, there will be no great upheaval, no awkward period of trying to muddle through without a sporting director or head of football. Newcastle United can attest to how difficult it can be to negotiate a transfer window without a recruitment specialist in place. Sunderland do not have to worry about that.
They can plan for a summer in which they will attempt to further strengthen their place in the Premier League. For that, they have much to thank Speakman for. From the depths of League One to the rarefied air of the top-flight. Speakman plotted the course for Sunderland’s journey – and was a key figure in ensuring it was a successful one.