Before everything, it’s nigh on inconceivable to argue in opposition to the financial logic of Eliezer Mayenda’s sale to .
A price rumoured to be north of £20 million for a participant that price round £800,000 once we in 2023 represents one other piece of Sunderland switch wizardry and even as soon as sell-on clauses are factored in, the revenue shall be hefty and it’ll be clear that the rules of “Signal, nurture, develop, promote and hopefully reinvest neatly” have been adhered to as soon as once more.
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He scored our first objective of the 2025/2026 season, rising excessive to energy a header previous a stranded when West Ham made the journey north final summer season, however will Mayenda go this manner once more?
Perhaps not in purple and white, however after two or three hopefully productive seasons in France, I might simply see him making a big-money transfer to a rival Premier League membership. Within the meantime, we are able to add one other ahead to the summer season procuring record; hopefully, which means that will stay on Wearside, and the highway goes ever on and on.
This sale undoubtedly shines a highlight on the problem being confronted by Sunderland.
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Conserving the money circulation graphs pointing in the appropriate path is among the key tenets of our strategy these days — and make no mistake, it completely needs to be.
It started underneath Kristjaan Speakman, who oversaw the gross sales of , and for colossal earnings on the unique outlay, and though Mayenda’s transfer to France is probably not a headline-grabber in the identical sense as Bellingham’s swap to , it’s a ringing endorsement of the surroundings we’ve created for younger gamers in addition to Sunderland’s newly-acquired standing as a rising pressure within the switch market.
With that in thoughts, I do wonder if what we’re seeing is additional proof of a riff on the strategy to switch dealings that was put into observe so efficiently by underneath Arsene Wenger.
There was a supervisor who definitely knew what number of beans made 5, and that for his membership to compete within the quickly altering panorama of the cash-rich Premier League, which started to increase in the course of the late Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s, he needed to choose his gross sales of gamers as shrewdly as he did his purchases.
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By way of sheer numbers, is Mayenda’s sale Sunderland’s very personal ‘Nicolas Anelka second’?
The notoriously stressed French striker arrived at Highbury from in 1997 and helped the Gunners to a league and FA Cup double in 1998/1999 earlier than departing — though maybe not as an out-and-out Galactico — for for over £22 million in 1999. In his place got here a winger-turned-striker by the identify of , and for Arsenal, the remainder was historical past.
Completely different gamers, sure, however the precept is similar. Purchase for comparative pennies, give the participant the time and house to develop and contribute, and promote for a lot, far more — and that’s clearly what we’re striving for right here. It’s a method that’ll hopefully allow us to determine a aggressive foothold within the prime flight in the course of the years forward.
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After arriving as a part of the consumption in the course of the summer season of 2023, Mayenda’s Sunderland spell was curious, and it’s in all probability protected to say that few of us would’ve envisaged his profession panning out because it has.
His first act of be aware in a purple and white shirt was to hammer a shot at Birmingham Metropolis goalkeeper ’s face minutes after coming into the fray on the Stadium of Gentle, and his final was to open the scoring for the Lads at .
In between got here a frankly baffling mortgage spell at Hibernian (“Ach. The Huge Man didnae present any indicators of being a £20 million participant for us”, they may presently be saying in Leith), and a 2024/2025 marketing campaign that noticed a sequence of thrilling performances, excellent targets, and eventual playoff success.
Mayenda was key throughout that unforgettable interval, exhibiting a big-game mentality, scoring two essential targets on the highway to the Premier League — the primary in opposition to Coventry Metropolis and a priceless equaliser in opposition to Sheffield United at Wembley earlier than changing into the primary footballer on file to make a Randy Orton-themed celebration look cooler than the opposite facet of the pillow.
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I like him so much. And it must also be famous that he’s not a ‘cult hero’, both. Transcend the chants and the ‘vibes’ and also you’re a footballer with a really excessive ceiling and the flexibility to make a significant impression throughout the English Channel.
I like his flip of tempo, his resilience (exhibited when he bounced again strongly after two poor misses in opposition to Stoke and Blackburn throughout 2024/2025) and his dynamic model of play, which might carry him a great distance on the idea that he sharpens up his ending, which you would possibly say is the one weak spot in his recreation in the mean time.
Alternatively, as a lot as I love Mayenda and imagine in his potential, I perceive why this deal has been minimize. As unromantic because it sounds, we’re not simply supporting a soccer membership these days — we’re supporting (in varied methods) a enterprise, one whose energy brokers typically need to make laborious selections and from which well-liked gamers and key figures will sometimes depart.
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I get the necessity for recreation time, which wouldn’t have been assured even with the added calls for of European soccer for 2026/2027, and of our three forwards, you could possibly argue that he was all the time the almost definitely to go away this summer season.
I hope he enjoys a profitable and goal-laden profession. I hope that Sunderland reinvest correctly in an effort to substitute him, and I additionally hope that with the passage of time, we don’t find yourself viewing him as a participant to be filed underneath “Let’s take a look at what you could possibly’ve saved”.
Go nicely, Eli. Thanks for the previous three years, and hopefully we’ll cross paths with you someplace down the highway!