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Sunderland: Phil Smith slams disappointing transfer window
Sunderland Echo journalist Phil Smith has been left disappointed with the Black Cats’ lack of urgency to sign a new striker in the winter transfer window.
The Lowdown: Risky strategy by the club
Sunderland were unable to hand Tony Mowbray another striker during the January transfer window despite losing Ellis Simms, who returned to his parent club, while Ross Stewart went down with a season-ending injury.
The Black Cats did manage to secure one new attacking signing in the form of Joe Gelhardt, but he’s very inexperienced, with just eight first-team league starts under his belt, so there are no guarantees that he will hit the ground running at the Stadium of Light.
Mowbray would have surely liked to have brought in another new striker before Tuesday’s deadline as they have a huge number of games between now and the end of the season.
The Latest: A disappointing transfer window
Smith was speaking on The Roar podcast about how Sunderland’s overall transfer window was baffling and disappointing after failing to land a new forward.
He said: “It’s not good enough for a club to be going into a big FA Cup tie without a striker, to be dependant on a player whose match fitness probably isn’t at the absolute top level at the moment, to go into a month where there’s about eight fixtures, I think.
“It’s disappointing and clearly, there’s aspects of the process, if you like, that need to be improved. Because for all the Stewart injury is rotten luck, and for all the Simms recall was pretty baffling on Everton’s part, we knew going into this window that Sunderland would have only one striker contracted for next season.
Should Sunderland have signed a striker?
Yes!
No!
“So you would have thought it was an area they were looking at – and it was an area they were looking at. I know for a fact that they tried to strike permanent deals for young strikers.”
The Verdict: Sunderland very think upfront
Many fans will likely be fuming that their club were unable to bring in another striker alongside Gelhardt to help Sunderland navigate their way through the remainder of the Championship season while also taking some pressure off of the striker’s shoulders.
Considering Sunderland – after a tremendous first half of the season – find themselves just two points off the play-off spots, they could have had a real push for one of the spaces inside the top six during the second half of the campaign.
However, with Stewart – the club’s top scorer this season – now out injured, it’s a lot to be asking of young Gelhardt to take over from the Scotland international to replicate the red-hot form he was showing at the Stadium of Light, and we could well see the Black Cats slide down the table because of their inability to recruit another goalscorer.
