Over the years, Sunderland has had some excellent players as well as their fair share of disastrous transfers.
There is a Jozy Altidore for every Jermain Defoe, and not every transfer deal can pan out in the end.
Thus, we’re going to examine eight Sunderland strategies that were utterly unsuccessful at the Stadium of Light.
Jack Rodwell
It is difficult to find a bigger transfer disaster for Sunderland than Jack Rodwell.
When he was at Everton, the English midfielder was expected to have a brilliant career. However, injuries and competition for playing time at Manchester City prevented him from making a successful move, and his time at Sunderland was even worse.
The Black Cats lavished an enormous amount of money on Rodwell during his tenure at the team, and Sunderland supporters will undoubtedly shudder when they think of him.
Ricky Alvarez
Although Sunderland supporters were understandably thrilled about what they were going to witness from Alvarez when he signed from Inter Milan, the deal eventually proved to be unsuccessful.
He didn’t leave much of an impact when he was on Wearside, and he would soon return to Italy when he joined Sampdoria.
It was a case of what could have been with this offensive midfielder, who had a few caps for Argentina.
Didier N’Dong
Sunderland was hoping that the big-money midfielder would be a true enforcer on the football, able to control play in the middle of the pitch.
Although he possessed some potential, he was unable to succeed at Sunderland and never truly shown his abilities on Wearside.
The skills were obvious, but N’Dong and Sunderland’s relationship didn’t work out, thus he must be considered a failure.
Emmanuel Eboue
Possibly the strangest addition Sunderland has ever made.
After being released by Galatasaray, the former Arsenal full-back signed a contract with Sunderland in March 2016.
But after neglecting to pay money owing to a previous agent, he played just one game for Sunderland’s U23 team before FIFA barred him from all football-related activities for a year.
The Black Cats decided to end his contract after he did not play for them in the first team.
Jozy Altidore
The forward was signed by Sunderland from AZ Alkmaar. It was his second stint in England following a disastrous loan transfer to Hull City in 2009.
Between 2013 and 2015, Altidore made almost 40 Premier League games for Sunderland, although he only scored once, at the Stadium of Light against Chelsea.
Lee Camp
Camp was having a terrible time in Sunderland.
In 2018, he made 12 appearances for the team while on loan from Cardiff, several of which were marred by errors.
It was a difficult time for everyone concerned, and Camp left to play for Birmingham City shortly after, making a good number of games there.
Sometimes relocation simply isn’t meant to be.
Milton Nunez
Nunez was acquired by Sunderland two decades ago in a very perplexing deal.
During his two years in England, Nunez only made one league appearance for Sunderland against Wimbledon and one League Cup appearance against Luton Town before heading back to Nacional.
A sign that the wrong people on Wearside remember.
Papy Djilobodji
The motion made by Djilobodji resembled the one made by Alvarez.
He came to Sunderland from another major club, Chelsea, and Sunderland would have hoped he would have been a huge hit.
But in his two years with the team, he made just under 20 league appearances before finding himself out of there quickly.
Since then, he has seen greater success in Turkey.
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