Normally, Dick Advocaat said, “the panic starts in March or April”, but although Sunderland’s head coach made the case for calm yesterday, solace was absent. After two poor defeats, uncertainty has shrouded the Stadium of Light and while Advocaat dismissed some of that as “nonsense”, he predicted another relegation battle if his squad is not strengthened before the transfer window closes. He offered no guarantees about his own position.
Tempted out of retirement after leading Sunderland to safety last season, Advocaat repeatedly refused to dismiss suggestions that he would walk away if quality players do not arrive.
“We are concentrating on Swansea [City, who they are at home to today],” he said. “All the other stuff is not important, not me, not the players.” Pressed again, he said: “I don’t want to discuss that now. It is not an issue,” but nor will it do much to release tension.
Advocaat held discussions with Ellis Short, the owner, about investment when he agreed his one-year contract. “We had a meeting and he said, ‘We have to invest to make the team better’ and that’s what we’ve tried to do,” the Dutchman said. “He did not mention figures. He never said to me £10 million, £20 million, £30 million, £40 million, £50 million, £60 million, like the other teams are doing.”
Did Advocaat say that he needed five or six new players? “Yes, I definitely have said that,” he said. And have Sunderland got them? “[Short] says we have four or five players. But I said we need quality players.”
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And they do not have enough quality? “Not yet,” he said. “You get what you pay for. Manchester City get a central defender this week for £32 million. Chelsea have one bad game and they buy Pedro for £22 million. And we have Duncan Watmore. That’s the difference.” Watmore, the 21-year-old forward, made his debut against Norwich City last weekend.
While Advocaat said that Sunderland “will get better”, as things stand, they can compete only “to stay in” the Barclays Premier League. No more than that? “No,” he said. Would it mean another fight against relegation? “Yes. If we get the players we are working on, it will be easier, but the problem is that all the other teams are spending fortunes and we cannot,” he said.
Sunderland have signed Sebastián Coates, Adam Matthews, Jeremain Lens and Younès Kaboul, at a total cost of about £15 million, with Yann M’Vila arriving on loan from Rubin Kazan, while Connor Wickham has joined Crystal Palace for £9 million.
Heavy defeats by Norwich and Leicester City have contributed to an air of instability, but the context is of a frequent churn of managers, dreadful football and struggle. It is that atmosphere that has greeted reports that Jermain Defoe will seek to leave the club if he is not played in his preferred position as a central striker. “Jermain Defoe will play on the left or the right — or on the bench,” Advocaat said “Nobody can tell me where he has to play.”