A nine-year spell at England’s premier competition came to an end last season when Sunderland were 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 have just won four of their 26 league matches this season and with only 22 points on the board, they stand in the relegation zone. The club is rock bottom, 24th 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 has now 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 Jake Clarke-Salter of Chelsea is going to be an objective of top priority for Chris Coleman and his team in this winter transfer window. The Black Cats have conceded a mammoth 43 goals in just 26 games, averaging almost 1.6 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.
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 have 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 have lost fine young products in the process, many they have gone on to rue. It now seems that the Blues could be on their way to regret losing out on yet another player.
