SAFC Transfer Round-up

The January transfer window came to a close last night, with Sunderland making just the one signing on Deadline Day.

Young defender, Joe Anderson made the move to The Black Cats from Everton yesterday on a three-and-a-half year deal.

But, how did Sunderland do, overall?

Incomings

Joe Anderson – Everton

Joe Gelhardt – Leeds (Loan)

Isaac Lihadji – Lille

Pierre Ekwah – West Ham

I would rate our incoming an 7.5/10.

I love the fact that we carried on with the current model and brought in more young and talented players.

However, I believe that we would have benefitted more if we brought in some more experience after the injuries to Corry Evans and Ross Stewart.

It is also a shame that we couldn’t get Ellis Simms over the line, because now we only have the one striker in Joe Gelhardt and, even though he is a very promising player, he hasn’t, yet, scored very many goals in his career.

So, the only thing keeping it away from a perfect score for me is, the fact that we are now left short on experience and striking options.

Outgoings

Ellis Simms – Returned to Everton

Jay Matete – Plymouth (Loan)

Bailey Wright – Rotherham (Loan)

Leon Dajaku – St. Gallen (Loan)

I would rate our outgoings a 9/10.

This is because, I like the fact that we have let the players that aren’t getting a lot of playing time a chance to get some minutes.

Jay Matete is already shining at Plymouth in League One, showing that he might still have room to improve and Leon Dajaku has gone to Switzerland to get some much needed game time to keep his progression going.

Bailey Wright has been a fantastic player for us, but he has fallen down the pecking order of late and it is good to see that the club didn’t stand in his way as he looked for first-team football.

Overall

I would rate the window a 8.5/10, the players that we have brought in look full of promise and we let the players go out on loan that clearly needed to.

Another striker or two would have been much needed, but Speakman has done well with his recruitment so far and he has all my trust that he will continue to guide us in the right direction.