ON the face of it, Sunderland’s capture of Jermain Defoe, with Jozy Altidore heading back to the MLS in the opposite direction, represents a wonderful piece of business.

Not only have the Black Cats rid themselves of a player who had become a figure of fun, such was the extent of his struggles as he scored one goal in 42 top-flight appearances for the club, they have also recruited a replacement who stands 14th in the all-time list of Premier League goalscorers.

Given that only Aston Villa have scored fewer Premier League goals than Sunderland this season, it was always going to be imperative that a proven centre-forward was recruited to help stave off the very real threat of relegation.

For all that he is now 32, with his international days for England behind him, Defoe’s goalscoring pedigree is impeccable. Valid questions can be raised about whether Sunderland’s midfielders will create sufficient opportunities for him to be seen at anywhere near his best – after all, it’s not as though Steven Fletcher or Connor Wickham have been missing a host of chances this season – but provided he retains even a semblance of his former sharpness in and around the penalty area, Defoe could well prove the difference between Sunderland retaining their top-flight status or slipping into the Championship.

If that is the case, Ellis Short and Lee Congerton can rightly feel content with the concerted courting that has resulted in Defoe shunning at least seven other Premier League clubs in order to move to the North-East.

Ultimately, though, this week’s developments say much about the position Sunderland find themselves in at the halfway stage of their eighth consecutive season in the top-flight, and it is not a particularly positive message.

Whatever way it is dressed up, the decision to spend around £70,000-a-week on a thirty-something, a commitment that stretches to more than £12m over the course of an anticipated three-and-a-half year contract, smacks of desperation rather than any long-term plan.

Would Sunderland have been throwing such vast sums at Defoe had not they not found themselves embroiled in yet another relegation battle? It’s extremely unlikely. Would they have had to resort to such a panicked measure if their long-term strategy had been more successful? Again, the answer has to be no.

It is now more than six years since Short assumed full control of Sunderland, and yet it is still pretty much impossible to outline what his vision is for the club, or how he intends to set about realising it.

Ask what kind of club he presides over, and the answer will probably be determined by an assessment of what has gone wrong in the previous six months. As the Defoe signing proves, Sunderland’s major decisions tend to be reactive rather than an attempt to dictate what is to come.

You can say what you like about Mike Ashley at Newcastle United – and plenty do – but at least the unpopular owner has developed a clearly-defined strategy for how his club is going to operate and is open about his desire to achieve financial self-sufficiency. That doesn’t mean Newcastle are going to achieve anything significant during his tenure – in fact, it can be argued that Ashley’s philosophy actively mitigates against the possibility of the Magpies winning something – but having formulated a clear plan, the sportswear magnate is clearly going to stick to it.

What is Short’s plan for Sunderland? Under Steve Bruce, it appeared to be to wheel and deal in order to improve the Black Cats squad. When Martin O’Neill arrived, the talk was all about quality rather than quantity and the targeted acquisition of a handful of big names.

The chaos of the Roberto De Fanti era represented a radical change of tack, with control over transfer matters ceded to the Italian director of football as attention was switched to the continent in order to pick up low-cost players who could be improved.

Now, while Congerton has effectively replaced De Fanti in a new sporting director role, Sunderland appear to have adopted a scattergun approach whereby the likes of Liam Bridcutt and Will Buckley arrive from the Championship, Santiago Vergini and Ignacio Scocco are recruited from South America and Jack Rodwell comes in for big money from Manchester City.

Then, of course, there is the decision to throw millions at Defoe, a player whose age means he will have no resale value once his contract expires. If you can ascertain an overarching plan from all of that, you’re doing better than me.

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with signing a former star in the twilight of their career, although the last time that happened in the North-East, Newcastle United found themselves saddled with Michael Owen at a time when the former England international was more interested in horseracing than heading home winners.

Defoe’s determination to have one last hurrah after a troubled spell in Canada suggests his focus and commitment will be at a much higher level than Owen’s ever were, but while his goals will surely help Sunderland’s survival effort in the final four months of the season, it’s hard to see how his arrival will be of benefit in the long term.

Once his talents begin to wane, he will have to be replaced just as Altidore has been, and if Short is going to limit himself to one or two major signings in each transfer window, Sunderland will quickly find themselves in an expensive cycle of declining assets if they continue to sign 32-year-olds on three-and-a-half year deals.

Perhaps Short has looked at the financial implication of relegation and concluded that a short-term fix is required no matter what the price. Given that it is his money propping the club up, he deserves credit for funding this week’s deal when he could easily have told Gus Poyet to make the most of his current squad and kept his fingers crossed for a repeat of last season’s ‘Great Escape’.

Ultimately, though, such a hand-to-mouth existence looks certain to come unstuck. Sadly, if you spend your time constantly looking to put out fires, eventually you’re going to get burned.