Sam Allardyce expects Sunderland to be involved in “minimal” transfer activity during January but has refused to rule out selling Jermain Defoe. The former England striker scored the winning goal in a vital 1-0 victory at Crystal Palace on Monday night but on Thursday his latest manager declined an invitation to confirm that Sunderland’s highest-paid player would definitely be staying put on Wearside. Asked if he wanted to keep a forward who has contributed four goals to his team’s struggle against relegation this season, Allardyce appeared open-minded rather than unequivocal.
“At the end of the day, whatever happens, happens,” he said. “If I ring an opposition manager or football club and I want one of their players, what determines if that player is available or isn’t available changes day by day. There’s no definite players that we know of going out from here. In terms of a specific player, we don’t know.
“At this moment in time, we don’t know a definite player who is coming in, because we’re just starting to pull up who we think might be available.”
Although Allardyce has recently reconfigured Sunderland’s formation to 3-5-2 to accommodate Defoe and the 33-year-old’s need to play in a front two, his words would seem to indicate that assorted options are on the table.
Even so, any actual transfer market action is likely to be limited.
“I think the business done in January will be minimal,” said the former West Ham manager, who challenged Defoe to keep scoring after learning the striker had shrugged off an ankle injury in time to start against Stoke at the Stadium of Light on Saturday. “I don’t think it will be extensive. It’s too small a window to find what you need, which are players of greater quality.” Moreover recruiting an excess of new faces could prove counterproductive.
“If you make too many changes you can make things worse,” Allardyce said. “At the moment we’re trying to find a [tactical] solution to our problems and introduce a solidarity to our squad so, to introduce another four or five players, might actually cause more harm than good.
“ I would think we’re probably looking at two at the most coming in – and if one or two went out I’d be surprised. I just don’t see the window being very active for anybody. I know where the players I’d like are but I don’t know if I can get them.
“If players aren’t better than what we’ve already got you may as well as say no and keep the group we have. That’s the group who have got us out of trouble in the past. It’s the players already here who are going to get us out of trouble, not the ones we bring in. The players already here are going to be the mainstay or whether we get out of trouble or not.”
Much, according to Allardyce, depends on Sunderland’s levels of spikiness. “They’ve just shown a certain amount of capability in the performance we have just put in against Palace,” he said. “So, if we stick with that, we’re going to get out of trouble. But if they choose to be spiky, and by that I mean up and down, inconsistent, that’s no good. As a professional player you need to be consistent.”
