When forward Joe Gelhardt signed for Sunderland on Friday, it was another sign of the quiet revolution under way on Wearside.
Leeds undertook detailed due diligence on the loan destination of one of their brightest young stars and the Stadium of Light came out top when most of the Championship was courting him.
It’s not difficult to see why. Most clubs say they want to invest in youth but few are prepared to see it through. Sunderland are making sure they’re different.
On 29 December the club fielded the line-up with the fourth-youngest average age in its history. Just two players were aged over 23 in the swaggering 4-1 win over Wigan.
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Everton set to appoint Sean Dyche today after fruitless talks with Marcelo Bielsa27 January, 2023It is a clear trend. The signing of Gelhardt follows France under-20 international Pierre Ekwah, signed from West Ham this week, and Lille forward Isaac Lihadji, who joined the club on Thursday. He is just 20 and spoke of the club’s “project to improve players”.
They are supplementing that approach with smart loan moves. Manchester United’s Amad Diallo is thriving and the club want to bring him back for another loan next season if they are promoted. That no longer looks like such a long shot.
“They have a great sales pitch: ‘Come and play for us, we’re committed to development, you’ll play in front of huge crowds and come on the journey with us’,” one agent of a Premier League prospect courted by the Black Cats tells i.
“It’s not the same Sunderland of a few years ago when there was a suspicion a few players went there for a big final pay day.”
Indeed, the days of Ellis Short seem a long time ago. Sunderland must have felt they had won the lottery when the American billionaire took over with a burning ambition to return the club to European competition. But the club’s recruitment was desperate and they burned through managers, eventually suffering back-to-back relegations after Short sold up.
The club had to change and under the ownership of French billionaire Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, the 26-year-old son of former Marseille owner Robert, it has. It is no longer the sorry club of Netflix series Sunderland ’til I Die, haemorrhaging money and hope.
Instead Gelhardt joins a team in form, committed to open, attacking football, ninth in the Championship and with a genuine chance of making the play-offs, just a year after navigating the same route out of their unhappy four-year stint in League One. They are club with a clear, long-term plan and a growing reputation for innovation and bold decision-making.
At the heart of it is sporting director Kirstjaan Speakman, who helped develop a young Jude Bellingham at Birmingham, and head of player recruitment Stuart Harvey, who joined from Blackburn in 2021 and has been a revelation.
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The club have targeted the South American market while also concentrating efforts on snapping up some of the best young talent in France. Eyebrows were raised when Eduoard Michut signed on loan from Paris Saint Germain in the summer, not because he isn’t a gifted midfield playmaker but because few would have gambled on a player with his physique settling quickly in the chaos of English football’s second tier.
He has shown flashes of his immense talent and with an option to broker a permanent deal in the close season, Sunderland’s risk-taking approach should bear further fruit.
The departure of Alex Neil earlier in the season is a case in point. The popular Scot departed earlier in the season and tumult was brewing once again on Wearside. Accusations of doing things on the cheap were laid at the door of management.
But Sunderland, aided by Sports4Cast, a data company that helped vet their managerial picks, moved quickly to alight on Tony Mowbray, a coach with a reputation for developing players and entertaining football.
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In the FA Cup fourth round they have a chance to test themselves against Premier League opposition in Fulham. It may not be long until they’re back at that rarefied level.
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