Where Might Sunderland Look To Strengthen In The Summer?
As we begin to look ahead to the summer, how might the club approach the window — and what are their priorities?
LEEDS, ENGLAND - MARCH 3: Sunderland director of football Florent Ghisolfi and head coach Régis Le Bris celebrate reaching forty points on the final whistle during the Premier League match between Leeds United and Sunderland at Elland Road on March 3, 2026 in Leeds, United Kingdom. (Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images) | Sunderland AFC via Getty Images Ben McKevitt says… There are a lot of bases to cover in terms of recruitment. Of course, we primarily look at the incomings but due to the position of the club right now and the way we want to operate, there’ll also be a lot of noise around outgoings this summer.
The club did an amazing job at bringing in quality at good value over the summer but I still think we lack depth at the top level — which will be required if we’re aiming to push even further in the coming years. With the added allure of stability and proven Premier League results now in the club’s favour, I could see the recruitment team looking for fewer but potentially higher-quality signings. In terms of immediate priority, I think it’s well known that we’ve struggled with consistency and quality on the wings for large parts of this season.
It’s a situation with a lot of moving parts, especially when you consider that Monaco hold the option to turn Simon Adingra’s loan into a £20 million permanent move, whilst we have the opportunity to keep Bertrand Traoré on Wearside for an additional year. I’d say those two specific situations are far from foregone conclusions considering Adingra’s somewhat mixed form in France and Traoré‘s injury issues. To me, the most probable outcomes here would be for Adingra to move on permanently and for Traoré to stay for the additional year.
This would free up both wages and a transfer fee which could be reinvested into a top quality winger. Our current options of Chemsdine Talbi, Nilson Angulo, Jocelib Ta Bi and Traoré (with cover from Chris Rigg and Enzo Le Fée; are promising but largely youthful options with potential to grow and/or suffering from injury issues. It may seem like overkill but as we’ve seen, it doesn’t take much before we’re playing an eighteen year old centre midfielder at right wing.
Continue to the original source for the full article.