It has been, to put it mildly, an inauspicious start to the 2015-16 Premier League season for Sunderland AFC.
Granted there have been only four matches played so far, but it has been just about the worst case scenario for the Black Cats who lost the first two matches by a combined score of 7-3 to Leicester City and Norwich City before managing draws in their last two fixtures. It is worth noting that a 1-1 home draw to Swansea City and a 2-2 road draw to Aston Villa are signs of improvement.
The Luck of the Black Cats: The Sunderland Predicament
But there have still been calls for the Blacks Cats’ 67 year old manager Dick Advocaat to adjust his tactics and American chairman Ellis Short to buy more players before the summer transfer window closes on Wednesday.
It’s not as though Sunderland is a club who just isn’t cut out for the Premier League. The Black Cats have spent much of their history in the Premier League and the old First Division. Since the formation of the Premier League in 1992 the Black Cats’ average finish has been 14th. They have also managed not to get relegated back to the SkyBet Championship since their last promotion in 2007.
The Blacks Cats have also managed to win five in a row over their bitter Northeast England foes Newcastle United, the best such streak in the history of the Tyne-Wear Derby.
But that, plus a Capital One Cup Final Appearance in 2014 are about the extent of any recent accomplishment. That is unless you are counting the Black Cats’ last three seasons in which they narrowly avoided relegation with 17th, 14th and 16th places finishes.
I am always fascinated in sports and outside of sports with situations where the sum of an organization’s parts just do not add up and Sunderland are the poster boys for this in the Premier League. This is far from the only underachieving team in the Premier League and the English Football League as a whole. But it’s the one I am going to look at right now.
It is almost as though Sunderland is where promising young careers go to die. Take Jack Rodwell for example. Rodwell at one time was a very promising English youngster and made 134 first team appearances at Everton and Manchester City before Sunderland signed him for £10 million in August 2014. On paper this was a good fit as Rodwell looked to have Premier League quality at Manchester City but couldn’t get on the field in a crowded and talented City midfield.
Yet Rodwell was quite anonymous last season with 3 goals in 26 appearances and featured only occasionally during the Black Cats’ late season survival push. But the poster boy for ill-advised transfers was American striker Jozy Altidore who scored 3 goals in 52 total appearances after arriving from AZ Alkamaar for £6 million in 2013.
Even a high priced signing like Adam Johnson, who has shown flashes of success like a team-high 10 goals in 2013-14 is currently dealing with criminal charges he had sex with an underage girl.
All told Sunderland paid £68.5 million in transfer fees for the services of Johnson, Altidore, Rodwell, Emmanuel Giaccherini, Danny Graham, Stephen Fletcher, Connor Wickham and John O’Shea. That’s a lot of spending considering how little return the club are have gotten or are currently getting on that group of players.
There are also players like Jermain Defoe who came in on a free transfer, but is making among the highest wages on the club.
So what is the solution to Sunderland’s problem? While I am not arrogant enough to believe I have a foolproof answer to a Premier League club’s quandary I believe relegation is the solution.
That may seem odd because relegation is rarely a desirable outcome, but it is absolutely what Sunderland needs at this point.
Back in the Championship Sunderland will be the proverbial big fish in a small pond. Also, unlike other former Premier League clubs like Leeds United, Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest the Black Cats have a billionaire owner and a 49,000 seat stadium.
They will also be forced to sell a lot of the dead weight that makes up the majority of the team at the moment so they don’t run afoul of UEFA Financial Fair Play rules like QPR did two seasons ago in the Championship.
This would also mean a guarantee of more playing time for promising young talent like 21 year old striker Duncan Watmore who came on in the 69th minute and scored in a 3-1 loss to Norwich City.
Granted the Championship is a difficult league to escape and Sunderland would not have the resources that come with being in the Premier League.
But I don’t see much of a future right now for a team with a 67 year old manager and several starters on the wrong side of 30.
