Sunderland sporting director Kristjaan Speakman urges importance of ‘enough balance’ in summer recruitment plan

Sunderland sporting director Kristjaan Speakman has stressed the importance of finding balance in the squad as he and his team look forward to a busy and productive summer. The Black Cats will need to refresh and improve the squad for Championship football after they beat Wycombe Wanderers in the League One playoff final.

Speakman has received criticism from fans for his recruitment, much of which has brought in young and exciting talent. But a lack of balance between them and the experienced heads led to a huge wobble at the start of the new year. Alex Neil showed his intelligence in pulling the likes of Dan Neil, Elliot Embleton and Callum Doyle out of the firing line before reintroducing Embleton to score the opener at Wembley.

And the former Birmingham City academy manager explained how this summer is crucial in applying balance and experience to a squad that can compete in the second-tier - but that doesn’t always mean bringing in older heads.

“Age and experience is not always as easy as that. You can have some very experienced 20-year-olds that have played two years in the Champions League.” Speakman said. “Probably not the ones for us next year, don’t want to raise expectations on that!

“It’s about what experiences those players have had. We spent a lot of time in player recruitment discussing around ‘someone could be old but they’ve not played’. For example, take Sunderland. Last year in League One, we’re playing in front of 35,000 people.

“We’re taking an experienced player but in actual fact, they’ve never played in front of that amount of people. So their experiences, even though they are 28, aren’t really relevant for this scenario.But you might take Jack Clarke who has played for Leeds in front of a really