Sunderland have had a fantastic transfer window in which the brief was very simple – thin out the squad and add quality where we can.
One of the sad things about our rapid rise from League One to the Premier League in four years is that some players who have helped us along the way just are not going to be up to the standard in the top flight, so we needed to find new clubs for lots of them in January.
In particular, Dan Neil, Aji Alese, Anthony Patterson and Leo Hjelde all left us in this window, while others such as Adil Aouchiche and Patrick Roberts – who were already out on loan – made permanent exits.
Also, given we signed 14 new players in the summer, it was going to be tough for all of them to work out.
It is fair to say that in the case of Arthur Masuaku and Simon Adingra, it has not really, so the fact we have moved both of them out of the door is also a net positive. We have found both of them good new clubs and it has not harmed our first-team squad one bit.
In terms of incomings, we have added three seriously talented young players – Jocelin Ta Bi, Melker Ellborg and Nilson Angulo.
If I were being picky, I would have liked a young understudy for Granit Xhaka to have come in and there is a little bit of deadwood still left over that we could not shift.
But all in all, it has been another successful transfer window for Sunderland, which gears us up nicely for a strong second half of the season.
Find more from Gavin Henderson at Roker Report
