Sunderland are essentially competing with the Championship clubs in the transfer market this season. The low transfer kitty has somewhat crippled the Black Cats and their targets have majorly been free agents or getting in players on loan who haven’t seen much first-team action in the first half of the season.
However, while their current Premier League stature might just have given them the edge over Championship players, for free agents who are mostly former Premier League stars, their current position in the Premier League table isn’t very encouraging. In fact, some Championship clubs have a better chance of reaching the playoffs and gaining the promotion than Moyes managing to help Sunderland save relegation.
They are currently at the rock bottom of the Premier League table with just 15 points from the opening 22 games, and one of their biggest concern has been scoring goals. Sunderland have managed to score only 20 goals so far in the league for which they are heavily indebted to the 34-yearold Jermain Defoe’s 12 goals tally.
The second highest scorer after Defoe has been Victor Anichebe with three goals, which pretty much sums up their season so far. While Moyes has found it difficult to protect Defoe from other Premier League clubs preying on him, he has to get someone alongside him to share the burden.
And it seems Moyes would stick with the success formula of old and heavy legs up front to pull them out to of relegation, after Defoe’s triumph in front of the goal. According to reports, Sunderland are lining up a bid for former Premier League veteran Robbie Keane.
The 36-year-old left Los Angeles Galaxy at the end of the MLS season and is expected to open talks with Sunderland next week, as per reports. Of course, it would be a short-term deal and Sunderland are expecting stiff competition from numerous Championship clubs.
Keane has played a whopping 368 matches in Premier League, where he has scored 131 goals and registered 23 assists. A Wolverhampton Wanderers academy product, the former Ireland captain has played for some of the biggest clubs in Europe and at the highest levels. They include the likes of Inter Milan, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.
Apart from that, he has considerable experience in clubs like West Ham United, Leeds United, Coventry City, Celtic and Aston Villa. Champions League, Serie A, UEFA Cup, MLS- Keane has played it all and the clinical striker is hugely experienced. Getting him could be a real asset for Sunderland in the second half of the season.
