Has the age of the football mercenary reached its peak?

My club will suffer in January. I am a Sunderland fan so I am used ti the suffering but it feels now like it is getting out of hand. It feels to me like the age of the football mercenary is reaching its peak.I know that for a long time the players have seen the game as a way of making huge sums of money while they still can. Their career is short and the rewards for moving clubs always seem bigger then the rewards for staying put. Add agents into the mix that like to make a deal then you have a mix that puts players in total power over clubs and fans sit at the lowest level of the pecking order. You see in football, showing loyalty means you can be exploited. The club knows that you are not suddenly going to up sticks and support the next closest team. Loyalty means that you will show up week after week, but the merchandise and out up with whatever is thrown at you.

This January transfer window will show that the club have little power against players,and it is the fans that suffer. This is highlighted by two players. The dealings of Yann M'Vila and Lamine Kone show that football has reached a new level of player power. It shows that the mercenaries are in control.

Yann M'Vila
Yann is quite simply the best midfielder Sunderland have had on their books for a very long time. He was absolute quality at the end of last season and had signed a pre-contract agreement with us to begin on the 1st January 2017.

Something happened on deadline day at the end of the Summer 2016 transfer window as Yann M'Vila arrived in England only to post a cryptic social media message that Sunderland had broken his heart. This is a man with a track record for playing clubs off against each other for his own gain.

It has been announced this week that he is now going to join Sunderland in January, The club stated that they only want players that really wanted to play for the club. Our best midfielder in many years was staying in Russia, with a club that he had fallen out with completely only a matter of months ago.

This is the type of mercenary behaviour that gives footballers a bad name. I understand where the club is coming from and if he isn't committed to the cause then he won't be an asset. He looked highly motivated when playing for Sam Allardyce in the second half of last season and if he wasn't going to be that motivated again then maybe he wouldn't have been the same player. It is the player that concerns me.

Lamine Kone
Another player that really concerns me is Kone. He was a revelation towards the end of last season as he defended brilliantly and scored goals as we stayed up. Obviously his transfer stock rose and he was in demand. But the club is looking upwards and want to keep their best players. He had only signed in January 2016 and really owed us at least one full season.

Kone did not see it that way. He wanted a transfer to Everton and it looked as though he was going to force this earlier in the year. he missed training, suggested he might refuse to play and fell out with the club completely.

In the end the deal was not done. The performances of Kone this season have not lived up to the promise he showed last and there is a very strong possibility that he will get his move to Everton in the January window. Another mercenary and his agent work the system their way until he gets the deal he wants. he has shown no loyalty to the club at all. We signed him from the relative obscurity of Ligue 1 and he wants more.

Sunderland
What do the club do? I think that we need a strategy as a club ti determine the way we are going to deal with players. For all the flaws of Steve Brice, he went to the big clubs and brought in their up and coming players on loan. We helped the career of Danny Wellbeck, Danny Rose and others with this way of working.

Southampton look from the outside like they tell their players once they have given two years service then they will not stand in their way of an offer from a big club.They have made huge profits on the likes of Lallana, Clyne and Wanyama while getting at least two quality seasons out of them.

Sunderland don't seem to have a strategy for attracting the best players, or for retaining those players if another offer comes along. I understand from players point of view that they don't want to stay with a club fighting relegation to the last few games of the season year after year. We need to grow and the way to do this is to have a strategy. Ellis Short seems to be content with just avoiding relegation every year. His players are not and neither are the fans.

Read about the key battle areas ahead of the Sunderland v Newcastle derby

It's a big day in the North East of England on Sunday with the Wear-Tyne derby. No matter where the two teams are in the league, this match is huge. I think it's a actually intensified with the fact that the two teams are in lowly league positions, although Newcastle will feel a little less pressure than Sunderland after getting their first win under their belts with a 6-2 home win over Norwich City at the weekend. Both teams have a new manager (at Sunderland, though we are in a permanent state of having a new manager) and both managers will have a point to prove. Both managers will have a point to prove to the Newcastle United fans after Big Sam Allardyce's failed tenure at St James Park in the past and Steve McClaren's lacklustre start.

The fact of the matter is that Sunderland have a recent hold over the Magpies with five wins in a row, and home advantage on Sunday. The passion of the home fans, if the home team is in the game, is a massive boost for either of these clubs. The fans are immense and the support that they give their players both home and away is up there with the best in the game.

What will be the deciding factors?

Discipline

I think that the team that keeps their head will stand a much better chance of winning this one. With Colback, Cattermole, Tiote and M'Villa potentially all playing in the centre of midfield there's bound to be a lot of tackles flying in and there will almost certainly be yellow cards galore. Players having to think twice about a challenge for fear of a second booking can turn the game, especially if it's tight,

Goals

I know it seems obvious that goals will decide a game but until the six that they scored against a poor Norwich team, Newcastle had struggled to find the net. Sunderland still struggle to find the net. So it's a match where chances will mean so much more. Will Wijnaldum keep up his goalscoring form from the last match? Will Allardyce disagree with previous manager Advocaat and play Jermain Defoe up front on his own? The answers to these questions will also provide answer to the question "who will win the match?"

The fans

I've mentioned it before but I think that after a rough time for both clubs recently, the fans will be in great voice. Both sets of fans will be looking forward to this match immensely and there will be a crackle of excitement around the cities for the next few days. Thierry Henry was amazed by the atmosphere in the stadium in last years match at the Stadium of Light. But this excitement can go the other way. Fans of both clubs can get on the players backs if things start to go wrong for the team. Sunderland fans have made a habit of leaving the stadium before half-time in recent seasons, while Newcastle fans have been hugely critical of the owner and his cronies. If Newcastle start well then the home fans can quickly get under the skin of the players and you can see the confidence drain away.

I can see this one being really close and a lucky bounce or mistake settling it. I'm not sure which way, but I can see another 1-0.

Big Dick Advocaat is back - where does it leave us?

The slightly surprising news yesterday that Dick Advocaat has returned as Sunderland manager caught the bookies on the hop and has earned Mrs Advocaat a nice bunch of flowers, by all accounts. It's nice to have a quality manager that knows his football, has the backing of the players, understands the club (already) and has a great rapport with the fans. But it doesn't answer the questions around the playing staff of the club. We still need an overhaul, but the stories that went with Advocaat's departure (of him telling Ellis Short that we needed to buy quality rather than quantity) and the stories that went with his return (of him being promised £50m for players) are promising signs.

Personally, I hope that the gap between him leaving and re-signing was because of negotiations over the transfer policy rather than misgivings from his wife. I suppose we'll never know.

I've already looked at what I think should be potential transfer targets in a previous blog-

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The exception to the players I had identified would probably be Keiran Trippier. I stated that I thought he should be looked at as a new right-back based in the link to Sean Dyche, who was the favourite to take over as manager at the time. Rumours have linked us with Sam Byram from Leeds as a potential new right-back and, although I haven't seen him play, he is highly regarded.

There should now be a renewed feeling of optimism at the Stadium of Light and with the right signings (over to you, Lee Congerton) we can look forward to moving away from a relegation battle next season - but I think that at the same time every year.

The fact that Advocaat has signed a one-year deal means that we have to start work on his replacement straight away. Bringing in a Kevin Phillips now as his number 2, or promoting Paul Bracewell at the end of the season are better options than going into this blindly and looking for a new manager next June rather than this. I hope that the club sees sense in this and takes steps right now to ensure continuity at the end of the upcoming season.