Sunderland - Premier League season preview

By Mirror Football in Mirror Football Blog

Published 15:59 12/08/10

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Last season's finish: 13th
Lawro's verdict: 9th

Lawro's verdict
Steve Bruce’s men will be OK in mid-table. Perhaps their best signing was the recruitment of Bruce’s South American scouting network from his old club Wigan.

They have got some finances to improve and strengthen. They have been linked with stellar players like United’s Michael Carrick.

It will be a good season for Sunderland, moving forward and some decent new faces.

Gaffer: Steve Bruce
Suffered a couple of horrible afternoons last term but remained strong and bullish throughout and will back himself to do better this time round as well.

Needs to turn the Black Cats into serious players and that will require more goals from midfield and fewer defensive lapses. Unlikely to get beach ball help this time.

Key Man: Darren Bent
Superb haul of 23 goals last term was the main reason Sunderland were never in real trouble. While Bent is not England class he is more than good enough to keep on finding the net at domestic level.

Could do with better support but happy enough to toil and forage for scraps on his own – and rather better than Harry’s missus.

Ins and outs
In
Ahmed Al-Muhammadi - ENPPI (Loan)
Titus Bramble - Wigan (Undisclosed)
Marcos Angeleri - Estudiantes (Undisclosed)
Simon Mignolet - Sint Truidense (Undisclosed)
Cristian Riveros - Cruz Azul (Undisclosed)
John Mensah - Lyon (Loan)

Out
Lorik Cana - Galatasaray (£5m)
Daryl Murphy - Celtic (£1.5m)
Roy O'Donovan - Coventry (Free)
Jamie Chandler -  Darlington (Free)
Marten Mulop - Ipswich (Undisclosed)
Jean-Yves M'voto - Oldham Athletic (Loan)
Oumare Tounkara - Oldham Athletic (Loan)
Kenwyne Jones - Stoke (£8m)

Fan's eye view
Click here to read the fan's eye view with Scott Bentley  

Did you know?
Darren Bent scored more goals (10) in the opening 15 minutes of matches than 17 of the other teams and equalled the other two.

In 2009/10 Sunderland became the first side to have nine players sent off in a single Premier League campaign.

Big interview: Black Cats boss Steve Bruce
Steve Bruce didn’t have £10million to shell out on a Darren Bent-style spectacular this summer.

But the Sunderland boss reckons that he has unearthed another couple of gems in ­Paraguay World Cup schemer Cristian ­Riveros and Ahmed Al-Muhammadi, an exciting right-sided star dubbed “the ­Egyptian Beckham”.

Bruce, a talent-spotter extraordinaire, discovered unknowns such as Wilson Palacios, Hugo Rodallega and Maynor Figueroa as Wigan manager.

He believes 27-year-old Riveros and 22-year-old ­Al-Muhammadi are rough diamonds who will create a stir on Wearside.

The cosmopolitan feel to Bruce’s quintet of ­acquisitions is completed by Argentine international defender ­Marcos Angeleri, Belgian Under-21 keeper Simon Mignolet and his old Wigan stopper Titus Bramble.

But, despite losing ­influential Albanian ­midfielder Lorik Cana for a £5m fee to Galatasaray, Bruce has not only increased both the quantity and ­quality of the squad, but improved the club’s bank balance.

Bruce said: “Lorik Cana’s departure came a little bit out of the blue, but we have used the ­situation to both build up our numbers and to give us more depth.

“We have signed players who will not only improve us, but excite the fans and keep costs sensible. Cristian Riveros is a quality midfield player who impressed for Paraguay at the World Cup.

“He is an intelligent, creative type of player, who will provide us with invention from the wide positions.

“Riveros is not a direct replacement for Cana. He is different.

“It was no secret that Cana and Lee ­Cattermole were very similar in style, but I wanted to make us hard to beat.

“We will see more creativity from Riveros and, as he showed in South Africa against Slovakia, he is also capable of getting on the score sheet.

“Quite often players from Latin America take a little bit of time to settle here.

“Wilson Palacios, who I also had at Birmingham, was one of the exceptions to that rule. I’m hoping that Riveros can also make an instant ­impact.

“Al-Muhammadi is ­regularly compared to David Beckham in his homeland and is another player who is little bit out of the ordinary.

“He operates down the right side and is a bit like a quick winger. I think our fans will like him.”

But Bruce has been stung by criticism of his cut-price, £700,000 swoop for former Newcastle central defender Titus Bramble, who was a key defender during his two seasons at Wigan.

He added: “I have even heard it suggested that signing Titus for Sunderland could cost me my job.

“I thought long and hard before bringing Titus back to the North-East.

“But at that price, he was a bargain because he was superb for me at Wigan.

“In my first season he single-handedly kept us in the Premier League and was also voted Player of the Year.

“And when I asked him if could he handle coming back after the criticism he had at Newcastle there was no hesitation ­whatsoever in his reply. His attitude impressed me.

“Don’t forget Sir Bobby Robson paid ­£6m for him and Newcastle finished third in his first season to qualify for the Champions League. They were fifth the ­following season.

“Was Sir Bobby Robson that bad a judge of a player?”

Bruce enters his eighth season as a Premier League boss admitting that his target is to take Sunderland into the top half of the table and beat his previous highest finish of 10th with ­Birmingham.

He said: “We could probably have made top 10 last season if we hadn’t had that terrible mid-season run. But we are aiming to be in and around that area this time.

“Most people could have a ­pretty good stab at naming the top seven or eight sides and we are probably in that ­second league of around a dozen clubs.

“But your experience helps you in what is a ­difficult league to manage in and, hopefully, we have learned from the last campaign to progress from our 13th placing.”
 

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