Page 36 - 358264 LP231909 A Love Supreme 48pp A5 (Issue 257)

JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW:
WASTE OF TIME X1
Since January 2003, the January transfer window has proven a tough time to make additions. Instead of nipping out to the shops to top up with some milk and bread when the cupboards
were a bit bare as the season progressed, suddenly clubs had just a month in which to turn their season around. To continue the supermarket analogy, this means some clubs are sometimes sent to the shops with money to buy essentials to last until payday and they return home with a yoyo, a New York skyline photo and Yankee candle. As Sunderland, we know more than most about unnecessary purchases and too much money spent on extravagant purchases that we really could have done without. Over the years, they have ranged from the ridiculous to the sublime; but today I want to focus on the players who were brought in to save our season but ultimately barely featured on Wearside.
GK: STEVE HARPER
Seaham stopper, Steve Harper signing for Sunderland might be a dream if you’re a fan of alliteration, but to say the experienced bench warmer didn’t leave much of a legacy is something of an understatement. To be fair
to Harper, he was brought in as emergency backup to Vitto Mannone and Jordan Pickford and he at least gave us all a good laugh by leaning against the tunnel with a face like thunder as everyone around him celebrated us retaining our Premier League status at the expense of Newcastle.
LB: DECLAN JOHN
Well, this is a bit awkward now... John arrived on loan from Swansea with a decent pedigree but the fullback never kicked a ball in anger during his short stint at Sunderland. There’s not a great deal more to say on
the matter, other than he exemplified Phil Parkinson’s tendency to sign players but never actually trusting them enough to change his starting line-up to make room for them. In true Sunderland fashion, Declan John proved to
us all that he does exist by scoring Bolton’s sixth goal in a 6-0 defeat to The Trotters.
CB: KADER MANGANE
Mangane looked set to bolster Martin O’Neill’s defence back in January 2013, when he signed on loan from Al-Hilal but the Senagalse international made just two appearances for the lads. Admittedly, one of those games came in the 3-0 victory over Newcastle at St James’ Park, so despite his limited game time, he achieved more for Sunderland than the vast majority of us could only dream of. The rest of his career wasn’t much to write home about as he spent time at Kayseri Erciyesspor and Gazélec Ajaccio before seeing out his professional days at Strasbourg.
CB: JOLEON LESCOTT
Joleon Lescott was exactly the type of player Sunderland needed... about four years before we actually signed him. Throughout his career, he had been a steadying influence no matter where he went,
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