What happened at Sunderland on Deadline Day?

Deadline Day for Sunderland usually isn’t particularly hectic, but given that no fewer than four players were announced AFTER the 11pm deadline, it’s clear that it was a busy one for Kristjaan Speakman and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus at the Academy of Light.

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Outgoings

I’m sad to see him go, but I think everyone can agree that it was for the best that Pierre Ekwah left the club this summer. He had fallen right down the pecking order behind the likes of Dan Neil, Chris Rigg, Jobe Bellingham and Alan Browne, so getting him a good move to a club where he’s going to play regularly at a decent level was key.

St Etienne are back in the French top flight having won the Ligue 2 playoffs at the end of last season, and for Pierre he’ll be getting vital experience in a tough competitive league, with a few options at the end of it — either he absolutely kills it and Sunderland decide to bring him back into the fold, or he does really well for his new side and they decide to take up the option to sign him on a permanent basis.

Also moving to the French top flight is Timothee Pembele, joining Le Havre under the tutelage of former Middlesbrough player Didier Digard. Like Ekwah, Pembele has a few years left on his Sunderland deal and Kristjaan Speakman was keen to highlight that his progress and future will be assessed come the end of the season.

Weirdly, we don’t have an awful lot of cover in the full back positions, though Pembele was a very different type of full back to the ones we have. I suspect the club are content with having Luke O’Nien as our full back cover and that we’ll not really feel the loss of Timothee given how little he’s played, but time will tell.

Another defender (or midfielder, as it now seems he is) heading out the door was Nectar Triantis, who has re-joined Edinburgh side Hibernian for the remainder of the season. The communication on this deal from both the Sunderland and Hibs end was very interesting — it’s clear that both clubs see Nectar as a holding midfield player, and he’ll spend this next year honing his craft in that position. Fair enough I guess, he needs game time and he was never likely to get that regularly here given the quality we have both in midfield and at centre half. I’m fairly optimistic that he’ll make the most of his time up in Scotland and, fingers crossed, he’ll come back having had a stormer of a season for them.

Lastly — and this was a proper weird one — but it seems that Hemir has left on loan to join Juventus, although we haven’t seen any confirmation on this one other than what was reported on the official Serie A website yesterday afternoon. From what we’re told, it’s a loan deal with a purchase option and he’ll be sent to play for Juventus Next Gen (their B team/U21s side), who play in the Serie C. Let’s see if an official confirmation of that one arrives at some point today.

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Incomings

Four deals were confirmed late into the night, though with three of them I think we all pretty much knew they were done. For one, though, it clearly went right down to the wire.

First through the door was Wales international Chris Mepham, who joins us on a season long loan from Premier League side AFC Bournemouth. Mepham arrives having spent five years with the Cherries and despite being just 26 years old, comes with a wealth of Premier League and international experience behind him.

Would we have been in a position to sign a player like this if we hadn’t been top of the league? Who knows, but I suspect we’d have found it difficult to convince him.

With Aji Alese injured again, Dan Ballard on the comeback trail and Jenson Seelt nowhere near ready to get involved again, the club are taking no risks and have gone out and signed a proper player who will be able to immediately contribute. Hats of to them for this one, cos this is a good signing that any Championship club would have been happy to make.

The next loan through the door was Ghanaian international midfielder Salis Abdul Samed, joining us from RC Lens for the season. Another experienced yet relatively young player at 24 years old, Samed joins us having been a real key player for Lens over recent seasons, playing six times in the Champions League last year and featuring as part of the side that finished second and just one point behind PSG in the league in 2022/23.

He’s also got nineteen international caps for Ghana, and at 24 his best years are surely still to come. From what we’re told he’s a pure defensive midfield player, so he fills the hole left behind by the departure of Corry Evans in the summer and also Pierre Ekwah, who would play that position on occasion during his time at Sunderland.

I’m actually pretty excited about this lad, as it feels like it’s been a long time since we had a top class holding midfielder arrive at the club with any real pedigree. Thinking back, the last one we probably had was Yann M’Vila, and that was almost ten years ago, so yeah... it’s been a while.

Then came the permanent acquisitions — a pair of hopeful punts on talented youngsters who the club will no doubt be patient with, but will also be very excited to try and develop.

First up was Milan Aleksic, who celebrated his 19th birthday yesterday by putting pen to paper on a four year deal with Sunderland. An attacking midfielder who likes to score goals, Aleksic has been on the fringes of the Serbian national team recently and has already scored two goals this season in Europe for his now former side FK Radnički 1923, so you can see why the club were keen to get him in and have invested a fair amount into his signing — the fee believed to be around €3.7m plus bonuses and add ons.

This is a record fee received by Radnički, and the highest amount Sunderland have spent on a player this summer, so I’m excited to see how he does once he’s settled in. It’s a big adjustment for any young player moving to a new country, so he’ll get time, but I can’t help but feel excited about what this lad could potentially bring to the table.

And then, in the wee hours, the club announced the signing of a player who had been linked earlier in the day by Fabrizio Romano — Ahmed Abdullahi, a young centre forward from Belgian side Gent, who joins us on a four year contract with the option of a further year. The rumoured fee was believed to be around €2m, but the club chose not to disclose it when announcing the signing this morning.

The 20-year-old is a Nigeria U20s international and last season scored 21 goals in 28 games for Jong Gent, eventually getting his call up to the senior side this season when he made an appearance off the bench early in August.

We know very little about this lad and Kristjaan Speakman was keen to stress he’ll be given time and patience, but that excites me about what he could potentially achieve at Sunderland. Another “let’s wait and see what happens” type of signing.

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