Sunderland confirmed the departure of Kristjaan Speakman in a statement on Friday morning
Most managers arrive and at their unveiling pledge that come what may in terms of results, they will leave the club in a better place than where they found it.
On this simple but most effective of tests, Kristjaan Speakman's tenure as Sunderland's sporting director can only be judged as a spectacular success. One assumes that his next job interview will be a relatively comfortable experience: he can merely compare the team he inherited to the one he left behind. That team which lost 1-0 to Wigan had some decent players in it and some very good characters, but was equipped neither to win promotion nor to help the club become financially viable in the long run. Speakman was not the sole architect of Sunderland's rise from the doldrums but he will remembered as one of the most important and influential figures in its modern history: his vision and work helped transform Sunderland from laughing stock and basket case to a club not just respected but who so many actively sought to emulate.
This is no attempt to rewrite history, Sunderland's journey back to the top was not a linear one and there were major missteps along the way for which Speakman had to be held at least partly accountable given his role. From the failure to build on Tony Mowbray's outstanding start to the appointment of Michael Beale and the transfer window that followed, there were bumps in the road and both promotion campaigns came with moments where Sunderland's prospects were on a knife edge. History ultimately belongs to the winners, though, and under Speakman's control Sunderland twice lifted a play-off trophy at Wembley. As Speakman himself said, these are memories that will last a lifetime.
Sunderland were not the first club to rise through the divisions thanks to the clever use of data and a bold recruitment strategy that didn't fear selling players but actively welcomed it as an opportunity to reinvest, and on that front Speakman and the ownership group followed a path laid before them by the likes of Brighton and Brentford. You could make a case, though, that this had never been attempted on this scale at a club so big, where the passion and size of the fanbase rightly invites huge scrutiny and where pragmatic decision making cannot afford to be mistaken for a lack of ambition. Speakman had his fair share of difficult moments in the spotlight but to his credit he never hid and even if his communication sometimes missed the mark with fans who have little time for the modern lexicon of modern football, he fronted up when many in his position at other clubs stayed firmly in the background.
History may also reappraise his position away from his obvious success in the transfer market. In the toughest times of the Kyril Louis-Dreyfus era to date, Speakman was often a lightning rod for criticism and though this is just part of the job, there were many at Sunderland and in the wider who felt that Speakman didn't get the credit he deserved for navigating an at times difficult environment and certainly in those early years. He arrived to work for an ownership structure that contained a lot of voices and views, and then one with a strong vision but real inexperience. If Louis-Dreyfus deserves credit for sticking the course and ultimately seeing the job through, then so does Speakman. He leaves having pulled off a trick that made Sunderland the envy of the EFL: winning promotion to the Premier League without parachute payments and without relying on an astronomical wage bill. To do it with a handful of academy graduates in the side, walking the walk where so many only talk, will only increase the demand in which he will no doubt find himself.
His departure has in all probability been on the cards from the moment Florent Ghisolfi arrived in the summer, even if initially there was a clear message that the pair would work together behind the scenes. Such has been the speed with which Ghisolfi assumed almost total control of the club's footballing operation, however, that some sources have today indicated that they are surprised that Speakman's departure did not happen sooner. It has been noted that the statements around his exit did not contain the usual platitudes of mutual consent, even if Louis-Dreyfus's public tribute was extensive and clearly keenly felt.
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Ghisolfi has led an overhaul of the club's recruitment operation in recent months and was the driving force behind the summer window, but his influence already extends into all facets of the footballing structure. While ordinarily the exit of a figure of Speakman's influence might create some worries about a vacuum, in this case there are no such concerns. Ghisolfi is not only ready to step into the breach but has in fact already been operating there for a number of months. Sunderland are a different club now, and Speakman's official departure is the moment that perhaps publicly declares the end of one era and the start of another.
The success of Sunderland's summer transfer business and their impressive return to the Premier League suggests that Louis-Dreyfus, Sartori and the board's decision to trust Ghisolfi and pivot to a new direction is a sound one, but it still represents one of the most significant gambles of their tenure. The challenge for Ghisolfi is to take Sunderland's first team to new heights while protecting the culture and unity that Speakman was able to foster. Sunderland are in a positive position as a club and their promotion from the Championship clearly owed much to the expertise and level-headed management of Régis Le Bris, who remains a key influence on the footballing side of the club and indeed one whose influence has been steadily growing since his arrival. Le Bris and Ghisolfi are now the driving forces at Sunderland, tasked with building on the impressive platform laid down by Speakman.
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