Simon Grayson took charge of his first training session as Sunderland manager this morning, and heads to Austria tomorrow for a five-day training camp with his new squad. What are the key issues the new Black Cats boss will have to address as he looks to ensure his side hit the ground running at the start of the Championship season?
SIGNING SOME PLAYERS
As he cast his eye over his new squad this morning, Grayson will have been looking at a threadbare collection of players.
Sunderland have lost 14 senior players since the end of last season – eight at the end of their contract, three at the conclusion of their loan deal, and three (Jordan Pickford, Jermain Defoe and Fabio Borini) either sold or loaned.
As things stand, the club have around 16 senior players on their books, but some, such as Joel Asoro and Josh Maja have only very limited first-team experience.
Grayson desperately needs to make some signings to ensure his squad is strong enough to cope with the demands of a Championship campaign, and now he is in place, he will hope to start getting new players through the door as quickly as possible.
Aiden McGeady, who performed so impressively during a loan spell at Preston last season, has already been mentioned as a potential target, along with Jordan Hugill, a Middlesbrough-born striker who scored 13 goals under Grayson last season.
DECIDING WHO ELSE TO SELL
Given the number of players that have already left the Stadium of Light this summer, it could be assumed that Grayson would be extremely reluctant to allow anyone else to leave. However, that is not necessarily the case.
In Lamine Kone, Wahbi Khazri and Jeremain Lens, Grayson has inherited three players who would command a decent transfer fee, and who have been extremely unsettled at Sunderland in the past.
He might well conclude it would be better to move them on and prevent them becoming a disruptive influence, especially if a significant proportion of the money raised was made available for him to reinvest in the transfer market.
The departure of all three players could bring in the best part of £20m, and even half of that sum might make a big difference in terms of the type of player Grayson would then be able to attract.
The new Sunderland boss will be loath to lose his emerging young talent – such as Duncan Watmore, Paddy McNair and Asoro – but further departures are likely before the transfer closes.
APPOINTING A CAPTAIN
It might seem like a fairly trivial thing, but the appointment of a captain will be one of Grayson’s earliest opportunities to draw a line under the past and begin to stamp his own imprint on the Sunderland team.
Will he be keen to retain John O’Shea on a new deal? The veteran Irishman held talks with Sunderland officials after his previous contract expired, but will Grayson feel he has something to offer despite having turned 36 in April, or will he decide it would be better to thank him for his previous efforts and move on to look elsewhere?
What about Lee Cattermole, another player intrinsically connected with Sunderland’s past, but whose leadership qualities could still prove useful as Grayson looks to rebuild.
Should the midfielder take charge of the captain’s armband, or might Grayson feel a new chapter requires a new skipper. Once new signings start to arrive, might he feel it would be better for one of them to take over as captain, marking the start of a new regime?
REBUILDING SOME CONFIDENCE
Pre-season matches usually mean nothing. This summer, though, it will be important that Sunderland’s players start to remember how to win again, even if it is in games that are otherwise irrelevant.
Grayson also needs to use Sunderland’s pre-season matches to start imposing his own style and philosophy on his squad. Last season was a dispiriting slog, and by the end of the campaign, it was hard to work out what David Moyes was trying to do in terms of a tactical approach.
Grayson needs to start providing some clarity, and while he would no doubt have liked a few more weeks in which to prepare for the start of pre-season, it might work in his favour that he is whisking his players straight off for a five-day training camp in Austria.
That will give him an immediate opportunity to start building relationships and gauging the mind-set of the players he has inherited.
He needs to make his squad believe they are capable of bouncing back to the Premier League at the first time of asking, despite the difficult off-field backdrop that has not gone away.
EXCITING SUNDERLAND’S SUPPORTERS
Grayson’s biggest short-term challenge might well be re-energising a fan base that feels justifiably battered and bruised after everything that has happened in the last 12 months.
Even he would have to concede he is not the kind of big-name appointment that Sunderland fans might have been hoping for, but he has got off on the right foot so far, praising the club’s support and expressing hope for the future.
Hope has been a scarce commodity on Wearside in the last year or so, and after the relentless negativity of Moyes, the best thing Grayson can do is smile and remain upbeat.
Sunderland fans want something to believe in, and while it is not sensible for any manager to make wild promises they are incapable of keeping, Grayson would be advised to continue accentuating the positives. Yes, the new season will be difficult. But Sunderland have to go into it aiming for promotion.
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