Sporting director Kristjaan Speakman says Sunderland are not a selling club and would not be looking to sell their star players while pushing for promotion
Sunderland’s’model,’ according to Kristjaan Speakman, does not make the Black Cats a selling club, and the club is not looking to cash in on a star asset like Jack Clarke mid-season while they are still in with a possibility of winning promotion.
Sporting director Speakman has also hinted at investing money in the transfer market next month to add further firepower to new manager Michael Beale’s side, with the four strikers who arrived over the summer still yet to make an impact as the season approaches its halfway point this weekend.
Sunderland appointed former Glasgow Rangers and QPR manager Beale as their new head coach this week, filling the void left by Tony Mowbray’s surprise dismissal earlier this month. The Black Cats have had a strong first half of the season, sitting only three points outside the play-off places, thanks to winger Clarke’s superb performances and ten goals.
Sunderland turned down bids for Clarke from Premier League Burnley in the summer, but his form this season suggests there will be interest in him again in the January transfer window. A bid of £20 million or more would be tempting, but selling the 22-year-old would inevitably harm the club’s chances of reaching the Championship play-offs for a second consecutive season.
When asked if it poses a problem for the club, Speakman responded, “I don’t think it’s a difficult problem.”I’m not sure who originally spoke the words “the model,” but I believe it was me, and if it was, I should certainly check myself because that has come back every [time].
“It’s simply a matter of having a very well-organized organization at your football club.”
“The selling the players part is a by-product of doing well, and that should be on the choice of the club in collaboration with the player at a given moment.”Over the last few years, the football club has rejected down numerous bids on numerous players, and we have only sold one player [striker Ross Stewart, who joined Southampton in a £10 million deal on deadline day in September].
“I believe there is a slight misrepresentation of the club’s direction and goal because if we were a selling club, we would have made a lot of sales – and we haven’t.”
“When players perform exceptionally well and attract the attention of Premier League clubs, it is natural that this will be a difficult time.”
“But our ownership has been rock-solid around that and I don’t think we will be looking to trade players when we have that opportunity to get promoted.”
Speakman said that if Sunderland does sell players in January, the money will be reinvested.
“That’s always been our strategy from the start,” he added.
“That by-product of doing well allows you to trade, and trading players is one of the most efficient ways of getting to the top of our league with more spending power to invest in whatever you want to invest in – facilities, people, players.”
“But it won’t ever be against our number one objective which is to get promoted and grow the club.”
Sunderland signed four frontmen during the offseason – Nazariy Mayenda, Luis Hemir, Eliezer Mayenda, and on-loan Chelsea forward Mason Burstow – but have struggled in the first half of the season.
While they have yet to score a goal, Clarke leads the way with ten goals, followed by Jobe Bellingham and Dan Neil with four each, and centre-back Dan Ballard with three.
Despite a paucity of goals from their attackers, Sunderland have created the framework for a play-off campaign and are likely to try to bring in more goalscorers next month.
“We certainly want to convert some of our dominance into more goals, and if you look at the team that Michael [Beale] took at Rangers, you are talking about a high-possession team that had to break down teams that played a low block, so there are a lot of similarities in terms of some of the more recent teams Michael’s teams have played against,” Speakman said.
“From a coaching standpoint, he can come in and share some additional ideas about how we can be more effective there.”
“From a transfer window standpoint, the club has always invested, not only in the short term, but also in the medium and long term, in order to improve quality.”
“We’ll continue to approach that, and we have been on with that piece of work since the [summer] transfer window closed and that will run alongside everything we have done in recent weeks.”
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