Season Preview - Sunderland

Quick Reminder, Real Life

What started brightly with a forward line of DBent, Gyan, and Campbell came closer to the relegation zone than anyone who watched the first half of the season or looked at the final standings would ever have guessed. February, March, and the first half of April were an unmitigated disaster with the club earning exactly 1 point between Feb 1 and April 16. If you’re looking for causes, the sale of talisman Darren Bent to Villa combined with an injury to Campbell and a lack of many additional attacking options were a big root cause. A solid run from mid-April through the end of the season that saw them win three of their five matches saved their bacon and even got them a nice-looking 10th place finish despite their miserable run.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

Darren Bent was Darren Bent when he was there (leading one to wonder why they agreed to sell him to a non-"big" team or why DBent wanted to go). Gyan was OK but nothing great. Bardsley had a nice fantasy season that ended with some big matches in the second half despite Sunderland’s generally miserable play in the real world. Otherwise, it was a bit of a fantasy wasteland at the Stadium of Light, highlighted by Sessegnon's never making it into the sytsem! Just to give you an idea of how bad, most of Sunderland’s first page of options in Yahoo are players new to the team. Jordan Henderson had a solid fantasy season but certainly not one that helps explain the price Liverpool were willing to pay for him.

Summer Changes

Sunderland Analysis - Lots of Transfer Activity

I've already gone on record in thinking that NUFC are among the mid-table clubs that have done very well for themselves thus far.  They've gone from highly volatile and a bit long in the tooth to more solid if perhaps a little less potentially spectacular.  West Brom has quietly solidified themselves in the back with some solid acquisitions as well.  That brings us to Sunderland who have stepped up the pace dramatically in the last ten days with three (relatively) high profile signings in Connor Wickham, Seb Larsson, and Craig Gardner to go along with depth in Keiran Westwood and my new favorite Premier League player "Bishop Magic" Dong-won.

So, how to the new signings look? First of all, I really like the Wickham move.  Here's my logic:

Gardner Signs for Sunderland

photo courtesy SAFC.com

Gardner is a Black Cat | Latest Sunderland News | Team & Transfer News | Sunderland AFC | Sunderland

Steve Bruce has completed the signing of Craig Gardner from Birmingham City.

The Solihull-born 24-year-old joins Sunderland on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee, becoming the Black Cats' third signing in just over 24 hours following the acquisitions of Connor Wickham and Ji Dong-Won...

He picked up a Carling Cup winners' medal and scored 10 goals in 37 appearances in all competitions during the campaign just ended, including a spectacular long-range strike against the Black Cats at St Andrew's in April.

Eight of those goals came in the Barclays Premier League, ranking the attack-minded player in the league's top ten midfielders in terms of goals scored.

I think this is a good signing for Sunderland and goes a long way towards replacing Jordan Henderson.  We've been fans of Gardners since he was listed as a defender in the Y! game but playing attacking midfield.  He had a brilliant start to last season, but as with Birmingham City as a whole, he faded as the year went along.

Coupled with some of their other signings, I would have to say that Sunderland is doing a really nice job of building a team of reasonably young players who still have a wealth of Premier League experience. With current players like Turner, Meyler, Campbell, Richardson and Bramble coming back to fitness Sunderland should be solidly mid-table again. Damning with faint praise, I know, but better than flirting with relegation.

I still worry that they're light in central midfield, with Lee Cattermole a liability rather than an asset, and on the left with Malbranque and KRich an ineffective duo and Bardsley a right-sided player. But maybe the aforementioned Myler or Riveros make their mark. Maybe Sessegnon settles into a wing role. Regardless, Bruce has pieces to play with coming into the new season.