A nine-year spell at England’s premier competition came to an end last season when Sunderland was finally relegated last year. The club probably survived more relegation wars in the last ten years than the number of goals they scored last season. However, it was doom spelt all along for the Black Cats last season and after finishing rock bottom, they moved down to the Championship.
Things have not gone well for the Black Cats well this season either. Sunderland has just won five of their 28 league matches this season and with only 25 points on the board, they stand in the relegation zone. The club is rock bottom, 22nd in the Championship and looks set to drop further. After failing to guide an aimless Sunderland side to safety last season, Moyes resigned as the manager of the club in May this year. Simon Grayson who replaced the Scot and was been sacked after only eighteen games in charge.
It is a sad state of affairs for the club’s board and Martin Bain, the Chief executive of Sunderland and the former Rangers man who now have to motivate the new manager Chris Coleman and the team to not get relegated from the Championships.
Often in these situations, two tricks that always help is the arrival of new players and the team to at least stop conceding goals if they cannot outscore. A defensive team builds a resilience in the side upon which the club can base its rebuilding. Therefore the arrival of a new defender could possibly solve two problems at once for Sunderland.
It is being reported that the hunt for Ethan Ampadu of Chelsea is going to be an objective of top priority for Chris Coleman and his team in this winter transfer window. The youngster who can play as a defender and a midfielder has played five times for the Premier League champions. He is at most a fringe player and at the age of 17, he needs way more game time than what he is getting at Chelsea.
As for Sunderland, the Black Cats have conceded a mammoth 47 goals in just 28 games, averaging almost 1.7 goals conceded per game. Sunderland have not been strong enough at the back and that has been the root cause of the defensive misery this season for the Black Cats and Ampadu could be a much-needed reinforcement in the backline.
As for Chelsea, Michael Emanelo, upon his resignation said that he was proud of Chelsea’s loan system and went on to add that Andreas Christensen was proof that the system worked wonders. While Christensen’s development testifies Emanelo’s comment, his statement is far from complete.
Chelsea has produced excellent youth products over the last few years. These kids have won every major trophy at the youth level. They have then been loaned out for further development. After that things go horribly wrong. Christensen is probably the only second player after John Terry to rise through the club ranks and the only one in Emanelo’s ten-year tenure at the club.
Chelsea would be hoping Ampadu will get some quality game time should he go out on loan to develop himself and can become a future superstar at Stamford Bridge.
