Sunderland

[simplyfulham]

Is anyone else impressed by/worried by how successfully Sunderland have recruited so far this summer.

They've signed about 8/9 players with about 6 of proven players at Premiership level. They've done a really good job reinvesting the money they got from Bent and Henderson and look like the could be dark horses this year.

What do we all think?

[finnster01]

They are nearly as good as Fulham. We have landed a single player who is a goalie from 2nd division in Hungary.

Boy am I proud. Jol is really turning it up a notch and a half in the transfer market.

[JBH]

Personally I think Bruce has brought in too many players at the same time and will struggle to know what his best team will be so unless he gets it right straight away there could be problems at the Stadium of Light

[Jack Fulham]

Ins:
Ahmed Elmohamady (RM, Enppi Club, 2m)
Keiren Westwood (GK, Coventry, bosman)
Sebastian Larsson (RM, Birmingham, bosman)
Craig Gardner (CM, Birmingham, 5,5m)
Connor Wickham (FW, Ipswich Town, 9m)
Dong-Won Ji (FW, Chunnam Dragons, 2m)
Roarie Deacon (FW, Arsenal, bosman)
John O'Shea (RB, Manchester United, 4m)
Wes Brown (CB, Manchester United, 2m)
David Vaughan (DM, Blackpool, bosman)

Wickham is a big risk. All the others are decent but hardly standout, can't have much more to spend as Larsson, Brown and O'Shea will have taken high wages. Would of liked it if we signed Vaughan though.

[leonffc]

[Wickham is a big risk. All the others are decent but hardly standout, can't have much more to spend as Larsson, Brown and O'Shea will have taken high wages. Would of liked it if we signed Vaughan though.
[/quote]

After bagging £24M for Bent and £20M for Henderson I reckon they might have a bit left in the coffers. Hopefully Bruce will waste it like he has so far. Brown must be good for 10 games a season and can gaurentee 6 OG's from that.

[simplyfulham]

Admittedly a few risks in there, but O'Shea, Brown, Gardner and Larsson are superb buys.

They already have a couple of decent players in the side with people like Gyan, Sessegon and Turner.

[MOR :]

They had to do something otherwise there would have been murders at The Stadium of Light, the fans were getting very restless at the end of last season.

[JBH]

Admittedly a few risks in there, but O'Shea, Brown, Gardner and Larsson are superb buys.

They already have a couple of decent players in the side with people like Gyan, Sessegon and Turner.

Not sure I'd class Brown as a good signing or Gardner come to that  :028:

[Mr Fulham]

It's pretty embarrassing that he's offered Wes "Crocked" Brown a deal until 2015. The lad will be almost 36 then.

[mangoputney]

It would be nice to think we'd upgrade at least one player at the back, two in the middle and one 'goalscorer' up the front, reckon we could be left behind by the likes of Wolves, Stoke and Sunderland, and I hate the thought of that :(

[Mr_Moon]

What Sunderland is to being a force is what Liverpool is to winning the Premier League.

Always touted and showing signs each pre-season, but fails somewhere along the way.

[clintclintdeuce]

Those players still are not good enough to start for us

[HatterDon]

Well, I wouldn't go THAT far. What is good to see is that after the board cut Bruce off at the knees by selling half their goals to Aston Villa, they actually re-invested the money in good, servicable players. A middling club spending money to try and become a European contender.


What an amazing concept.

[Mr Fulham]

Bruce wanted to sell Bent, Mr Hatter.

It was an excellent bit of business for the whole club.
Non the less, their overall concept is a bit weird - signing 15 players every transfer window doesn't help your squad in the long term.

[mrska]

Must admit theyve done well.  The Bruce /Ferguson connection seems to be very strong. Top 10 for the Black Cats me thinks..

[HatterDon]

Bruce wanted to sell Bent, Mr Hatter.
It was an excellent bit of business for the whole club.
Non the less, their overall concept is a bit weird - signing 15 players every transfer window doesn't help your squad in the long term.

And you know this, how?

[Fernhurst]

Must admit theyve done well.  The Bruce /Ferguson connection seems to be very strong. Top 10 for the Black Cats me thinks..

I'm not so sure Skasie, takes a while for a squad to settle into a good rhythm. The Man U boys will struggle without the back up of the rest of the squad, their "air of invincibility" will dissipate and if the squad starts to flounder..... who knows.
Gardner is the pick of the signings for me.

I wish we were playing them early.

[TonyGilroy]

I think its too many changes. Buying anyone qualified that's available. Personally I'd be surprised if many of these buys look like good business a year from now.

Much better to build gradually.

[Jimpav]

I would be quite concerned if Fulham went out and bought 8 new players at the start of the window.

1. It would suggest that we had a very weak squad to begin with.

2. To secure 8 players signings without a sniff of interest from any other premier league club would make me wonder, are they any good? Granted O'Shea will do well for them but the rest are a very mixed bag.

3. Why not wait to see who else is available. Remember we snatched Sidwell from Wolves after he had his medical with them. No need to show our hand straight away.

[elgreenio]

how about the fact that each of those players are hardly standout from the rest of their squad. They're average, like everybody below 6th or 7th place. I'd only start to worry if they went and bought a really top class player to bridge the gap