How Cats recruit players and what Ghisolfi's arrival means for the future

The arrival of Florent Ghisolfi at Sunderland was one of many moments in the summer that seemed to signal the club's significant ambitions, demonstrating to fans that they had no intention of simply making up the Premier League numbers.

- by Phil Smith

Though Ghisolfi's time at AS Roma had not been as productive as hoped, here was a director of football with a proven track record in Europe's top divisions. It seemed clear from the off that he would not be arriving on Wearside unless the club were eyeing some eye-catching transfers both this summer and beyond. And so it proved.

Ghisolfi's arrival also raised some interesting questions about how Sunderland would operate moving forward.

Adding such a high-profile operator to the club's executive team was always fraught with some element of risk. Sunderland had won promotion in part thanks to a smoothly functioning operation behind the scenes and to tinker with that in such a crucial transfer window was a brave move. Conventional wisdom would be that in an industry with big egos and where territory tends to be zealously guarded, too many voices can lead to discord and inefficiency. Sunderland saw opportunity and perhaps above all else, they saw agility.

Speaking last week, Kristjaan Speakman said that Ghisolfi's arrival had been crucial to the club's aggressive recruitment drive. It brought a new and extensive contacts book and it allowed Sunderland to work quicker and across multiple deals simultaneously.

In the end, Sunderland's unusual recruitment structure gave them a significant edge on their rivals.