Dick Advocaat spoke with a smile and there was a wider context to his comments but the subtext will not be lost on Ellis Short. “If players are not happy it’s better for them to leave,” Sunderland’s manager said. “And, if I’m not happy, then I’ll leave as well.” As delighted as Advocaat was with his team’s first point of the season and rediscovery of a recently mislaid fighting spirit, he had most definitely not been fooled into a false sense of security. No one should blame him if, in the next couple of weeks, he stands down.
“If we don’t get players in [before the transfer deadline] it will be the same as last year [a relegation struggle],” the 67-year-old said, delivering a not-so-veiled message to Sunderland’s owner. “So we definitely need new players. We need two or three to get competition in the squad during games but also in training, so people don’t feel easy.”
Short used a column in the programme to reiterate his commitment to the club, acknowledge past mistakes in recruitment and remind everyone just how much money he has poured into underwriting Sunderland’s losses in recent years.
Advocaat sympathises. Too many people have persuaded the American financier to throw his cash at some seriously bad buys and his new-found transfer market circumspection seems understandable. Even so, the former Holland manager is endeavouring to convince him that, with relegation the alternative, speculating to accumulate is imperative.
“It’s unfair to criticise the owner,” the manager said. “The man gives this club a lot of money. He has tried to improve the team this summer – but just not on the level everyone expected.”
Of the five signings to date, Jeremain Lens (£8.5m from Dynamo Kyiv) and Yann M’Vila (loaned from Rubin Kazan) shone against Swansea. Younès Kaboul, previously shocking, was injured, Adam Matthews unused and Sebastián Coates unconvincing.
Garry Monk’s side, playing well within themselves, controlled swathes of the game and securing the draw involved a gargantuan effort from Sunderland. “A team cannot [physically] do that every week,” Advocaat said, pointedly. “Sometimes you have to play on your skill like Swansea did. They used their quality.”
Bafétimbi Gomis showed off his attacking calibre with a third goal in as many games before Jermain Defoe, capitalising on Federico Fernández’s mistake, cut in from his disliked left wing role. All that remained was for the former England striker to jog a few memories by directing a fine low finish into the bottom corner.
Sunderland deserved a penalty when Jack Rodwell’s shot was met by Ashley Williams’ arm but Costel Pantilimon made several stellar saves, the best to divert a Gomis header.
“Their keeper made some really good saves,” said Pantilimon’s opposite number Lukasz Fabianski. “We’re still unbeaten but we’re so disappointed. Another goal would have finished them but we weren’t able to kill Sunderland off.”
Man of the match Yann M’Vila (Sunderland)
