News broke earlier today that Netherlands International, Jeremain Lens, is to join Sunderland, subject to a medical; the Black Cats agreed a fee in the region of £9 million with Dynamo Kyiv for the winger’s signature.
Aged 27, Lens is an experienced player when it comes to the international scene, having played for his country on 29 occasions, scoring eight goals during that time. Sunderland fans will be hoping he brings them some much needed firepower which lacked last season, after manager, Dick Advocaat, summoned them to safety with just one league game left.
The attacker – who can comfortably play anywhere along the frontline whether it’s as a lone striker or a winger – already has a wealth of domestic honours to his name in his nine-year playing career. He boasts league titles both in the Eredivisie with AZ Alkmaar and Ukrainian league with Dynamo Kyiv, along with cup winners’ medals in the KNVB Cup with PSV, and Ukrainian Cup back-to-back for the past two seasons with Kyiv.
Scoring 89 goals and notching 82 assists across 325 games, so far, shows that Lens is more than capable of getting his fair share of goals when called upon, no matter where he’s ended up playing, be it Holland or Ukraine.
Advocaat has already worked with the player during his one-year tenure with PSV back in 2012, where Lens was his most prolific up front with goals and assists. Fellow Premier League manager and Manchester United boss, Louis van Gaal, will be happy to see Lens taking on the Premier League, having also managed him at both club and International level; the latter was during the impressive run the Netherlands maintained during the 2014 World Cup, finishing in third place.
It promises to be a busy summer for Sunderland, as they know they’ll need to improve vastly with new acquisitions, should they wish to fight of any potential relegation battles in the upcoming campaign. It’s been widely reported that Advocaat has been looking to tighten his leaky defence, which conceded a whopping 53 goals last campaign. Advocaat has already secured the signatures of Liverpool’s Sebastian Coates and Celtic’s Adam Matthews, so he will be hoping that these new additions will create a bright future during the 2015/16 season.
Mackem fans, who would you like to see brought into the club over the summer?
Main Photo
