Patience required but pressure is really on

Shane Long is now reported to be a Hammers target

There are people in this world who believe the opening of the transfer window is similar to rubbing a magic lantern and watching a genie appear ready to supply everything required on our wish list.

Frankly I gave up on pantomime nonsense when I was about 12 – hoping for the best and fearing the worst has always proved to be a more realistic proposition.

Much went wrong in the summer…that’s a given. It was the worst transfer window in many years, just as last year’s was the best.

Whether people became over-confident or not is a question that is difficult to answer but to expect all the wrongs to be righted over the next month would be daft.

It’s a testing time for the board’s recruitment director Tony Henry who was employed specifically to find the top prospects. After the summer of 2016 he will know he needs to be bang on the case.

With the slow emergence of Havard Nortveidt in the right back role and the imminent return of Sam Byram, the right back position may not be as critical as it was a few weeks ago.

But the relentless emphasis on trying to grab Jermain Defoe from the club that sent Henry on gardening leave after he was head-hunted by West Ham, demonstrates that it’s up front where all our efforts are focused.

Brentford’s Scott Hogan (below right)  and Southampton’s Shane Long are also apparently in the frame too but, despite having big doubts it will happen, Defoe alongside Carroll seems a belting option to me.

Much is going to depend on Defoe and how difficult he and his agents are prepared to make life for the Sunderland board I reckon.

That’s why genies and magic lantern talk is a nonsense but it often becomes par for the course at this time of the year and it needs to stop.

I recall reading on Twitter last summer that we simply had to have Gokhan Tore. Very informed people who had clearly never seen him play said so . That didn’t work out too well did it?

January is a poor month to pull rabbits out of hats but after our summer there’s a lot of pressure on Tony Henry, the board and the manager to get key deals done.

It is not going to be easy but Henry needs to produce. He was appointed by the board – which is also under pressure – for that sole purpose.

Patience is required by us in the meantime and judgements must wait until the window slams shut. But we and he need a result.