After a 1-0 home defeat to Bournemouth in April 2017, the end of Sunderland’s ten year stay in the Premier League was confirmed. Within the month, their manager turned down the opportunity to continue in the hot seat and walked away from a run at promotion. The club announced the appointment of his successor and the Black Cats faithful entered the season with a feeling of optimism. It was not to last. He was sacked after only eighteen games in charge. By April the following year, the unthinkable happened, Sunderland achieved back to back relegations and for only the second time in their 130 year history, they found themselves in the third tier of English football. Sport bettors went crazy and sports betting sites started to received the most weird betting odds ever seen for Premier League. Sports betting fans learned a new lesson: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!
So how have the Stadium of Light club with one of the biggest fan bases in the country found themselves where they are today?
The demise of the club was swift and the reasons multi-faceted. Mindless appointments aside, hundreds of millions of pounds have been basically wasted away. Short-termism has meant multiple managerial sackings as well as disastrous player recruitment. The club has been desperately scratching around in the dark for quick fix after quick fix. In October 2019, the club announced that a £500,000 investment was to be made into the club’s scouting department. The January transfer window has now closed, during which their owner revealed his intentions to sell the club due to fan pressure. So how did they get here and where does all of this leave Sunderland’s new scouting system?
Failing To Prepare?
The Championship is often referred to as the most competitive league in world football and in truth, League One is not too far behind. The success of the Premier League has meant that every club which has top flight football within its sights will everything it can to achieve promotion. Football is an emotional game but in order for a football club to function, those in charge must use their heads. Unfortunately for Sunderland, all of the evidence suggests that this has not been the case.
Nearly a third of a billion pounds has been spent on building the worst team in the club’s history. If this wasn’t bad enough, fans have been left in the dark to watch on in despair, without any resemblance of a long term plan in motion.
A New Dawn
In previous years, the club have looked to cut costs and the scouting department was first to be scaled back. The recent £500,000 investment into the department was meant to set the Black Cats back on the right road, with new scouts going into Scandinavia, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom to work in tandem with the club’s technology based scouting systems. This has been a welcome surprise to many Sunderland fans who have for years been crying out for investment into the club’s infrastructure.
Are Sunderland Stuck on the Puzzle?
A complex network of scouts spread across Europe, along with the data-driven scouting and cutting-edge technology utilised by the club, was meant to do this. However, it is hard to tell if these investments have been in vain. The moneyball styled system is nothing new in football but this doesn’t mean that every club gets it right. Data analysis can be extremely helpful but in order for it to work, every piece of the puzzle needs to be correct. While the club have invested in the scouting department, there is a suggestion that many of the people working within the club are from an era of football that is not as welcoming to the introduction of technology as they need to be in order to progress.
Who is Invited to the Captain’s Table?
With such a reliance on the system, only time will tell if Sunderland have once again made the mistake of throwing money at the problem instead of creating a fully formed plan for the future. Football algorithms have secured their place in scouting, but perhaps Sunderland will need to position those who understand its importance at the head of their scouting department in order to reap the rewards from their new direction.
Explore, Learn, Think and Know
Parallels can be drawn between this much needed new approach and how individuals should approach football betting. In order to be successful in either of these avenues, you need a combination of carefully conducted research and an understanding of how the game works on a fundamental level. This will allow you to make decisions based on evidence, while still leaving open the possibility to trust a hunch, whether it correct predicting the scoreline of a three o’clock kick-off or putting your faith in the hands of a new signing. For Sunderland fans, here’s hoping the hierarchy at the club begin to put the future of the team at the heart of their choices…
