Sunderland's progress under Kristjaan Speakman is impossible to deny
Today at 01:00 AM
Fans have occasionally vilified Sunderland's sporting director over the years, but it's clear that he can and is taking us forward, writes Paddy Hollis
Kristjaan Speakman has been at Sunderland for over four years now, and in that time, we've gone from being marooned in League One to fighting for promotion from the Championship.
A man who's helped to transform how we conduct ourselves during transfer windows, we have a squad of top talent pieced together by a team he leads.
Speakman is also a man who, especially last season and seemingly during every transfer window he's been in charge, has been subjected to a lot of criticism bordering on abuse.
At times, this has been warranted. Our issue with signing strikers has caused a lot of frustration; the two months of Michael Beale in charge was a genuinely horrible time to be part of this club, and Speakman had lots of anger directed his way.
No club is run perfectly, however, and Speakman's role at Sunderland is no different, but if you look at his time at the club so far, last season was something to learn from. Given how well we're doing this season, it seems the club has learned this lesson the hard way.
With Speakman in charge, there's genuine intrigue during transfer windows, and gone are the days of signing players recruited to make the numbers up.
Last week, we signed a player who's got the fans genuinely excited, and whilst it's important not to get carried away, the signing of Enzo Le Feé shows that the calibre of new signings is improving, and Speakman and the recruitment team deserve huge plaudits for this.
Speakman has also brought in top talents such as Ross Stewart, Jack Clarke, Romaine Mundle, Wilson Isidor, and plenty of others.
These are players who've taken us forward over the last few years, with some hopefully remaining here to take us on to the next level. Yes, there have been some dud signings, but we've gone on to make over £25 million from the sale of two players who've barely played any football since leaving Wearside, and the money is being reinvested for all to see.
Speakman could set himself up for a real status of recognition with a January window that allows us to kick on and get promoted.
The pieces for our season so far have gradually been put into place over the last few years, and we're possibly three key signings away from genuinely being able to compete for one of the automatic promotion spots.
I've said this a lot over the years, but there'll soon be a time when other clubs aren't just interested in our players, but also the team who recruits them.
Some fans out there still won't like Speakman, and that's fine because everyone needs an opinion, but I stand by my view that we'll be worse off as a club if he were to leave, unless we can replace him with a sporting director with an even better CV.
