Sunderland Aim To Bolster Attacking Depth
On Sunday it was reported that Sunderland are interested in a loan move for Arsenal winger Charles Sagoe. Lacking attacking quality, The Black Cats are keen to bolster their attack before the end of the January transfer window.
It is no surprise that Sunderland are still trying to re-gain last season’s impressive loanee Amad Diallo, however with time running out and United holding a firm stance on the agreements, Michael Beale and his team are now looking at other potential options. Reported by Football Transfers this morning, Sunderland are edging closer to signing the Arsenal 19-year-old on loan until the end of the season as an alternative to Diallo.
Who is Charles Sagoe?
The 19-year-old winger has been at Arsenal since under 12’s and made his senior debut earlier this season. Starting on the right wing in the EFL Cup in September in a 1-0 win over Brentford, Sagoe received a standing ovation when exiting the field in the 70th minute and has been regarded as the next Saka. Having made the squad a handful of times over the past two seasons, including an unexpected appearance on the bench versus Sporting Lisbon last March, Mikel Arteta and his team are eager for the versatile winger to find game time in the Championship.
With an impressive Premier League 2 record so far this season, finding six assists in 10 games, as per TransferMarkt, Sagoe could be influential to Sunderland’s back end of the season.
Why do Sunderland need to better their attack?
Sunderland are lacking goals. Their fans are running out of patience with new manager Michael Beale and the shortage of reliant strikers. Having only won four out of their last 10 games, their fans are already piling pressure on the new boss and the board.
Scoring only 40 goals so far this season in the league, the worst record out of the top half of the table, it is evident that a new addition to the squad is needed. Their current leading goal scorer, left winger Jack Clarke, has 13 goals in the league and is leading Sunderland’s goal tally by quite the distance. No striker has managed to score more than once this season, with five of their summer signings, who are all attackers, having only managed to accumulate three goals between them.
However, this isn’t the only worrying problem for Beale and his team. As stated before, Ex Leeds midfielder Jack Clarke is on 13 goals and with this comes attention. It was reported that on Saturday night, Italian side Lazio submitted a £15 million pound bid, in an attempt to secure the 23-year-old before the window shuts. This isn’t the only attention that is circulating around Clarke’s name, a similar bid this month was submitted by West Ham and was subsequently turned down. The club have stated that he is not for sale however with Lazio about to begin their Champions League knockout campaign, who could blame Clarke for being interested in a last 16 duel with Bayern Munich over a trip to Middlesbrough.
Sagoe the right man?
Sunderland’s poor summer recruitment can only be to blame for this situation. Signing four relatively unknown attackers in the summer and an out of form Bradley Dach, is it reliable to sign an unproven youngster to help bolster their ranks?
