Sunderland’s squad is strong enough to start the season (but that doesn’t mean we’re done yet!)

I took the liberty to check out what business the rest of the clubs in League One has done so far the other day and, to be honest, I was wholly unimpressed.

Whilst it might actually seem like Sunderland have been slow in bringing new players on board, business done around the country suggests that this is nothing unique to our club.

Regardless, I’m not too sure what is going on, but nobody seems to be making serious strides. Hull have signed a handful of decent players, as have Bristol Rovers, and the deal by Peterborough to sign Jonson Clarke-Harris is a good one, but other than that I’m not too sure if any club has made four better signings than we have. I guess time will tell.

Point being that I’m not actually sure there’s anything for us to worry about - not yet, anyway. Is our squad ‘finished’? No, of course not. But is it good enough to start the season? I’d argue that it is, yes.

Maybe this is a rather simplistic view of things, but I reckon that our squad is decent enough on paper, but is just missing a sprinkling of quality in attack.

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

The lack of depth has been helped of course by the emergence of several youngsters as first team hopefuls during pre-season. Jack Diamond and Dan Neil have grasped the opportunity to impress with both hands and could well be considered first team squad members for the foreseeable future.

In reality, the first two games of Sunderland’s season are glorified pre-season games. The EFL Cup game against Hull next Saturday provides us with a strong test, and the follow up - a midweek home game against Aston Villa’s U21s side at the Stadium of Light.

In those fixtures I expect we’ll get a better idea of the sort of team that will take on Bristol Rovers in our first League One game, and in all honesty I wouldn’t be too disappointed if the squad we have today is the same group of players that we have on the day of that first League One game. And that isn’t an attempt to shift away the pressure from the club’s recruitment committee - though I’m sure they’re well aware of the squads deficiencies - but instead a nod towards the fact the team we have is capable of getting things underway in a winning fashion.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that we shouldn’t panic, because the transfer window is open until October 16th. The squad we do have might not be great but it has enough about it to start the season off well.

Come September 12th I might be made to look silly for saying this, but let’s just see. Perhaps it’s the new season optimism kicking in, but I’ve got faith in the players we have got to ensure we start off in the best possible fashion.