Muscle to make the top ten

May 28 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

FOR the second summer in succession, Sunderland stand at a crossroads.

Ellis Short’s millions will give the Black Cats an unprecedented chance to break into the top 10 – but the secretive American owner will be understandably cautious after Roy Keane fouled it up so spectacularly 12 months ago. Tabloid claims over the weekend had Sunderland’s summer transfer fund at the £200m mark, but the club was at pains to stress the kitty would be less than that.

Nearer £60m is thought to be a more accurate figure, and with the money they will get from selling players who are surplus to requirements, that should be more than enough for the new manager to make a splash in the market. Short will have learned harsh lessons from the spending spree he sanctioned 12 months ago. He was persuaded by chairman Niall Quinn that Keane should be given a free rein to make and identify his own signings without justifying such substantial outlays.

While there is a fine line to tread between interference and allowing a manager to do his job, Short is entitled to ask for better value for money that he got from Keane’s summer of transfer madness last year. Although a few of the signings have enhanced Sunderland – Steed Malbranque and Anton Ferdinand being two of them – the majority were wasteful and quickly shipped on. The deal may already have been brokered before the Portsmouth game, but Quinn must have cut a nervous figure watching Pompey cut Sunderland to ribbons to leave them teetering on the brink of relegation last Monday.

Sunderland have since been boosted by the relegation of their two biggest North East rivals, which leaves the Black Cats standing as effectively the only game in town when it comes to Premier League football in the north of England.

While Hull remain a top-flight club, they will not be able to match Sunderland’s newly-discovered financial muscle – or the vast potential of a club which gets 40,000 people through the turnstiles on a regular basis.