Sunderland's January Transformation: A window of opportunity
Today at 01:00 AM
January 2024 was a transfer window that was filled with some frustration and the club setting a tone for the year ahead — this time around the aim seems to have changed.
Transfer windows can be heaven or hell for football fans and clubs. On the plus side, you could go out and sign the players that make or break a season, but on the downside, you can lose a key player, potentially stopping dead in its tracks any hopes of promotion or survival.
January windows are often seen as tough if you need to go out and buy players, with clubs digging their heels in and being stubborn about negotiations. This makes sense: if you don't want to knock your season off course and don't need to sell for financial reasons, chances are a club won't. Sunderland are no different in this, but luckily it's been a while since we lost a key player in the mid-season window.
Last January was a quiet one for Sunderland, leaving us looking short in the striker department — and not for the first time following a window closing. There were pleas to go out and bring in Kieffer Moore on loan from Bournemouth. The decision not to pull the trigger left lots of fans angry. At the end of that window, we were seventh in the table, but a horrible run in February and March set the tone for a dismal end to the campaign.
We signed Romaine Mundle and Leo Hjelde in this window, both players who felt like signings for squad depth or the future and not for immediate impact. In hindsight, this has been the case. Before his injury, Mundle stepped up to fill the spot left by Jack Clarke seamlessly, while Hjelde has been trusted more as a player to come in and see a game out.
The window at the time seemed underwhelming, and our 16th-place finish made sense in hindsight. Twelve months on, it looks as though the club knew the opportunity to kick on and secure a playoff spot was there if we went for it more in the market, but the risk perhaps wasn't worth the reward.
We are halfway through the January 2025 transfer window, and attitudes seem to have changed a great deal. The signing of Enzo Le Fée was out of the blue and showed the kind of instant potential we've not seen much of in recent transfers. In Le Fée, we have a player who has played for a top European club and has been brought in to fit straight into the matchday squad.
Rumours of interest in striker Tom Cannon are a further example of this changing attitude. Signing a striker with a proven goalscoring record at this level has eluded us for several years. If we were to get Cannon signed, he would be the second player this window brought in to make an impact now, rather than one to develop and come good in six months—though this is something we have a good track record with.
The differences between the last two January windows are plentiful, and you can argue a key factor in this shift was the strong summer window in between.
There is a clear change in attitude this time around, and with over two weeks left, the players who come and go will give a good indication of what the club believes it can achieve.
