The “Mag Slayer” returns to Sunderland

Many pundits slammed Sunderland’s transfer business in the last couple of days of the transfer window and harshly criticised the two signings the club made.

However I, for one, think the business we did was a lot more successful than in previous years.

In recent seasons, deadline day has not served us well. Ricky Alvarez, Benjani and Sortirios Kyrgiakos to name a few. Fabio Borini joined a few days before deadline day and DeAndre Yedlin was the only arrival on deadline day.

Twitter exploded on the evening of August 31 with the news that Sunderland had agreed terms with Liverpool to bring home Borini. The young Italian enjoyed a terrific spell on Wearside when on loan during the 2013/14 season, and it was a shame we didn’t snap him up sooner.

He scored a lot of important goals for the Black Cats. These include an outstanding winner against Newcastle at the Stadium of Light, as well as sending the Wearside faithful into raptures when he put the lads in front in the Capital One Cup final against Manchester City.

Our attacking presence now looks even stronger with his addition and Dick Advocaat has the problem of deciding where to play Borini. A good problem nonetheless. Defoe is a certainty to play but does Dick play Borini alongside Defoe, or on one of the wings like he did a lot of the time under Gus Poyet? Either way, the Italian must start.

On a personal note, I’m looking forward to walking the streets of Sunderland acting out his famous “knife between the teeth” celebration when he wallops in the winner against Newcastle in October.

As for Yedlin, I believe he is a decent signing. From what I’ve seen he has got bags of pace and is possibly one of the fastest players in the Premier League. My only concern is that many of his critics say he isn’t the greatest at defending. Hmm.

With our current defensive record that doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence however, he surely must be an improvement on Billy Jones. The only worry I have is that Patrick van Aanholt and Yedlin will be left too far up field when a team counters, leaving our defence exposed.

That being said, the young American is dying for some first team action and where better to get experience than in front of large crowds at the Stadium of Light? Sunderland fans seem to get behind loan signings then are left bitterly disappointed when they don’t re-sign – for example Danny Rose and Marcos Alonso.

Next up we have Spurs at home, which of course means that we won’t see Yedlin just yet as he can’t play against his parent club. Sky have proven once again that all they care about is the money and not about the fans by moving this fixture to the day of the Great North Run, which is just 20 minutes up the road in Newcastle.

This leads to the possibility of an empty stadium due to people taking part in the GNR, as well as people struggling to make it to the game in a respectable time due to road closures and transport disruptions.

It is disappointing that the soul of football is being sucked out to make way for big money TV deals. Fans are being priced out of football and it is not fair. People are having to work hard during the week just to see most of their earnings gone trying to watch their team, even more so if paying for a full family. It’s about time something changed.