It was late August 2022 and Sunderland were at a crossroads. Alex Neil, the manager who had brought them up from League One, was widely reported to be wanted by Stoke City who were offering him more money. But Neil had also wanted the club’s board to bring in experienced players who might adapt better and more quickly to the Championship.
Sunderland’s board thought differently, wanting to stick to their new strategy of youth development and low-age recruitment. Neil went to Stoke; Tony Mowbray came in.
Since then, two things have happened to Sunderland: they have started playing more expansive football and the average age of the team has got younger. The two are directly proportional – the younger the team is, the more it looks like the main aim is to have some fun. And it’s working.
Sunderland were 16th at the end of October having won one of their previous eight league games. Now they’re sixth (and 12 points ahead of Stoke).
A youthful team is not just a characteristic of Mowbray’s Sunderland; it is its everything. The average age of the team picked by him since taking charge is the youngest in English professional football this season. The six youngest starting XIs in the Championship this season? All picked by him. The side that came from 1-0 down to beat West Brom on Sunday had an average age of 22.5 and contained only two players (Luke O’Nien and Lynden Gooch) who are older than 22.
Sunderland may not finish in the play-offs, but do not underestimate their achievement this season.
The last promoted club to finish in the Championship top six were Brentford in 2014-15. The two that came up with Sunderland – Wigan and Rotherham – are currently 19th and 24th.
It has been five years since a club that came up from League One even finished in the top half at their first attempt.
This is a wholly deliberate strategy; they saw it working like this in their dreams. Sunderland have signed 14 players this season on permanent or loan deals and only one of them (24-year-old reserve goalkeeper Alex Bass) was aged over 22. The club’s scouting and recruitment strategy has shifted to scouring Europe for potential talent; this season alone permanent arrivals were sourced from Lille, Union Berlin, Herediano and Le Havre.
The great hope is that this becomes self-fulfilling. The Championship is no longer a league in which clubs can spend carefree and the growing gap between the Premier League’s top half and the rest means that developing the youngsters of elite clubs is a viable way to improve your squad quickly. Sunderland have had loanees from Manchester United, Leeds, Paris Saint-Germain and Everton this season. If, along the way, you allow those you signed permanently to flourish until they are sold for bigger money, bully for you.
But this is more than merely a strategy, or at least it means more than that. For too long, Sunderland were a club sliding from view as they crumpled under their own incompetence, consecutive relegations accompanied by financial turmoil. They were a football team that lacked any obvious identity. They tumbled down to the third tier and failed to get out. They signed player after player, many of whom simply became indicators of a culture of transience.
Between April 2018 and August 2022, Sunderland had six permanent managers and five different caretakers as each of them either failed to halt the slide, failed to ignite the redemption or kept the seat warm for someone who did neither. In these circumstances, that most clubs go through eventually, it is the identity that becomes the guiding hand and the map. Without it, you are lost and you will keep losing.
The supporters have always stuck with Sunderland; the average home attendance increased when they went down to League One in an area where disposable income is not a privilege enjoyed by all. But they traipsed there on Saturdays and Tuesdays not with cheer or hope but through dogged resilience and the unshakeable scars that love and loyalty leave. Whole years went by when the name of the stadium itself felt like an ironic joke at their expense.
Those supporters were like any other at every downtrodden, downbeat, bruised old football club whose best times lay in the past. They were not asking for glory again, although they would greedily accept it. They were not demanding mega-money signings and trinkets, because they had long given up on both. They wanted the identity – any identity – back.
This identity is better than most because it is entertaining and may just be sustainable. Their best forward got an Achilles injury in January and a 20-year-old winger has stepped up. Jack Clarke was available from Tottenham and somehow they got him. Dennis Cirkin, Daniel Neil, Ajibola Alese – three English players aged 22 or under who might just be the future of this club whether they stay or are sold on for a healthy profit.
When Amad Diallo picks up the ball, the crowd begins to fizz. When an academy graduate scores or simply roars to the crowd, it means more. Whatever happens now, whether it be a Wembley date in late May or disappointment in late April, this season has produced something lasting and something tangible at a club where for too long that all felt like someone else’s dream.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/KNe3Oc0
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