Why Sunderland didn't sign a striker on deadline day - and why I can live with it

It's the question we are all asking, so let's try to shed light on what lay behind Sunderland's deadline day decisions.

There is this idea in football that you have to be on either side of an argument. Sunderland, historically, have tended to prove it. Although, in fairness, that has always been because Sunderland is a club who have only ever, in my lifetime at least, existed in the extremes.

The failure to sign a striker on deadline day is going to test that inclination to take sides. On the one hand, it is not even remotely acceptable to knowingly send a squad into the second half of a season with just one striker. It’s also true to say, though, that it in no way negates the otherwise brilliant work that the recruitment team at Sunderland have done.

This season we have seen Sunderland playing their best football in more than two decades. There is no real question about that, in my mind at least. It has been scintillating and, more importantly, it has been fun.

The recruitment team have put together the most likeable Sunderland team in years, and they have done it after inheriting a rotting carcass of a squad that was a disgrace to the shirt, and without overspending or saddling the club with debt. The failure to sign another striker on deadline day is not going to change that.

Nor is it going to change the fact that Sunderland are steadfastly taking a long-term view, and that’s a good thing too. In fact, it could change everything for Sunderland.

Within that context, if the plan is to take Sunderland from League One obscurity to Premier League sustainability in five years, what does 18 games really matter? And that’s what we are talking about here.

As fans, we get wrapped up in the now. We see our club two points away from the play-offs and we want the club to go for it, to have a right go, to deliver on the promise. That’s our instinct and our right.

We shouldn’t forget, too, that Sunderland have had a huge amount of bad luck. To lose Ellis Simms on a Frank Lampard Hail Mary whim was bad luck. To then lose Ross Stewart to serious injury was even worse.

That, though, is where the long-term thinking comes into it again, though. Because, against such context, 18 games is very much a short term problem.

Simms was going to have to be replaced in the summer regardless. Stewart will now be back for pre-season training. Whatever succession plans were in place can be activated in the much kinder, easier summer market.

All of that, though, is for another day. In the hear and now - February 1, 2023 - it’s hard to not be disappointed and deflated.

The club may well have decided to accept a short term handicap in exchange for a long-term gain. That kind of focus and conviction is admirable. Nevertheless, Sunderland are handicapped for the rest of the season, and that's hard to accept.

That’s no slight on Joe Gelhardt either. The Leeds man is an incredible talent and will be brilliant fun to watch. He may well play every minute of the remaining Championship games this season.

There’s no Plan B though, is there? There’s no second option, no mixing it up. That will cost Sunderland points. No question.

For all the frustration and deflation today, Sunderland will remain fun. With players like Patrick Roberts, Amad Diallo, Jack Clarke, Trai Hume, Dan Neil, Dan Ballard and the array of other great young talents, including Gelhardt, how can it not be fun?

And hopefully, in five years time we’re sat in the Premier League, grateful that the recruitment team held their faith in the plan and didn’t go chasing expensive deals that could hamper further progress. Let us not be so quick to forget the lessons of Will Grigg.

We don’t know, and we won’t know for a while. Personally, though, I will try to remember that we are very much on a journey, and we are nowhere near the destination yet. The squad Sunderland have assembled, and the football they are playing, are making that journey very enjoyable.

Perhaps a chance for a genuine play-off push is now gone. Then again, perhaps it was never really there. After all, it’s not like any of us were expecting it or demanding it this season, and the rotten luck with injuries probably would have altered those expectations even if we had them.

In the meantime, this will unite the fanbase in frustration and perhaps some cracks in the trust will start to emerge for some. For me personally, though, I’m comfortable enough with it. Those running the club have led us this far. I spent that long complaining about short-termism at Sunderland I’m not now going to moan about long-termism.

So, I find myself on neither side of the debate here, at neither extreme. I’m frustrated, but energised, deflated yet excited. If they are working on the bigger picture, that is what I am happy to ultimately judge them on.

I saw someone on social media put it incredibly succinctly: Don’t get me wrong, I really like Sunderland’s ‘model,’ I just wish that model included signing strikers. 

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