Sunderland’s Clever Recruitment Strategy

Introduction:

In this piece, I look to explore the recruitment strategy of Sunderland who are currently in the EFL Championship in England. I have been observing their transfer activity over the recent years and in this piece I intend to deep dive into the last 3 seasons to see the thought process of the recruitment team and where I can see this heading over the next few years looking ahead.

This piece is not covering every transfer the club has made or sold on assets, this is specifically covering a certain profile of players as there appears to be a pattern emerging which is what I am looking to go over in more detail.

Transfer Policy:

The table below goes into detail on the transfer strategy that Sunderland have applied over the last 3 seasons. The following goes into detail such as how much Sunderland spent on the player, if these players are still at the club or sold and then the current expected transfer value which I will explain further on why this was included.

Firstly, what I noticed was the fact that Sunderland have been utilising the Premier League U21 market, where they have picked players up on a lower fee and then appear to develop them within the club which has looked to have increased their current value. Appreciate that we do not know the exact transfer fee for the undisclosed deals however, my assumption would be they would not have sent more than £1–2M for these players, especially at the age they were purchased at along with their EFL experience. They also identified players who were out of favour at Premier League clubs who would have been put into their U21 side such as Patrick Roberts, Jack Clarke & Dennis Cirkin.

France was another league that the club tapped into for a list of players as per below. Again, they looked into the top clubs B teams mainly or the lower leagues in France to buy younger players for a smaller fee.

The above leagues were heavily utilised over the past few seasons and the club have looked at other areas in Europe such as Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium and even Northern Ireland on one occasion. They have gone outside of Europe on a few occasions to look into the Costa Rican & Australia leagues however, with the work permit situation in the UK, it is understandable why they have not ventured outside of Europe.

The Mindset:

When analysing the list of players above, I started to gain an understanding of what Sunderland are trying to achieve. If we look at these signings over the past few years, they have kept almost all the players at the club, which goes with what I mentioned about developing these players at the club at a high level such as the EFL Championship. If we look at the players current expected transfer value, this has increased for the majority of the players, I would say all but I cannot 100% confirm that for every player as per the undisclosed deals.

My presumption is that the club will build around most of the players listed and see how far they can get with them before looking to offload for a profit or even take them into the EPL if they manage to get promoted. Short term, they have invested into these players but as long as they continue to develop and increase their value, the club will be in a good place in years to come from a financial point of view.

If we look at a few players such as Clarke & Bellingham in particular, that is already at least £30M in sell-on fee for both of them at minimum. My thinking is the club will give it a good push with the key players and if they do not get promoted then bigger clubs will come calling and then Sunderland will have to sell these assets and then invest wisely for another push into the promised land.

Performance Over Past 3 Seasons:

I analysed the clubs overall performance in line with their recruitment strategy and in the last 3 season they have finished as follows:

23/24 — EFL Championship — 16th

22/23 — EFL Championship — 6th

21/22 — EFL League One — 5th (Promoted via play offs)

The majority of the recruitment which was listed in the table above was done from the season the club got promoted to the Championship. They had a great first season as they returned to the Championship however, dropped off in the season just gone. I would say that the club have in mind that they are currently a work in progress, so as long as they remain in the Championship for at least another season, they would be on track and continue to develop the players they got. I do think next season will be key in terms of if the club do not push into the play offs and what this would mean for the overall project and the direction they will head in recruitment wise if they do not reach the heights that many expect and want.

Conclusion:

Overall, I do feel like this is a smart move by the recruitment team. I have no doubt that they will make profit back overall on all the players purchased, even with selling a couple of these should the club remain in the championship. Bearing in mind, there is another season ahead where the other players will develop further more likely.

My mind tells me that the players have had some experience and development under their belts over the past few seasons and the upcoming season will be the one where the club would want to push on into a playoff spot or higher. Already the likes of Bellingham and Clarke are attracting interest from bigger clubs and it won’t be long until other players start to have their value increased over next season too and attract interest.

Should the club get promoted, I feel they will have a young set of players, along with some experience added in around them would do very well. However, if the club remains in the Championship and some of these key players move on, then I think there is a rebuild for the season after on the club’s hands and maybe change their approach in recruitment. For example, they generate profit from some of the players listed, they then use these funds to bring in players who are more experienced, utilise the loan system and then give it a real push and then reset again with this type of approach. For example, once they are in the EPL, they would do a similar approach but then loan these players out to the Championship, League One etc to get that experience and again raise their stock and development.

I personally think it’s a win win for the club from a financial standpoint and the team really did a great job in identifying talents across different leagues and had coaches at the club who have done brilliant to develop them.