Sunderland's director of football Florent Ghisolfi (Image: Richard Sellers/PA Wire)
Sunderland's director of football Florent Ghisolfi (Image: Richard Sellers/PA Wire)
SUNDERLAND’S January transfer business will be heavily dictated by how Regis Le Bris and his players manage to juggle the twin demands of Premier League football and the Europa League in the next couple of months.
With the dust having settled on the summer transfer window, director of football, Florent Ghisolfi, and the rest of the Black Cats’ recruitment team are turning their thoughts towards January and the opportunity to further strengthen the squad at the start of next year.
Financially, there is scope to make improvements when the window reopens, albeit that Sunderland need to be mindful of remaining within the financial parameters laid out by both the Premier League and UEFA.
However, Ghisolfi wants to see how things develop between now and the end of December as Le Bris attempts to guide Sunderland up the domestic table while also negotiating a passage to the knockout stages of the Europa League.
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The Black Cats’ squad is about to be tested with Brian Brobbey and Dan Ballard both having sustained injuries during the international break, and with Saturday’s home game against Brighton sparking a run of seven matches in the space of 22 days.
“We’ll see,” said Ghisolfi, when asked about what might happen in the January window. “At the moment, we have a big challenge with the Premier League, the Europa League, the cups, and then we'll see what we need to do.
“But the market is not the most important thing for me right now. It's how we will manage the team now and we will help the club to grow and approach the four competitions.”
This is Sunderland’s first season in Europe for more than half-a-century, with Ghisolfi admitting he and the rest of the club hierarchy are taking something of a step into the unknown.
The Italian has worked at Lens, Nice and Roma, all clubs who have extensive experience of juggling the demands of domestic and continental competition. The Premier League is different though, with Ghisolfi admitting everyone at Sunderland is having to learn together as the season progresses.
“We all have to grow,” he said. “As a director of football, as a manager, as a staff, as a team. This will be a good challenge [playing in four competitions], but we are not afraid about this story and we take this as an opportunity to grow.”