Sunderland Fan View: Selling Jordan Pickford might be vital to our rebuild

As the last game of a miserable season looms for David Moyes and his Sunderland side, attention inevitbly starts to turn to planning for the next campaign. Life in the Championship will pose its own problems not least of which will involve rebuilding the squad – yet again. This time however, can it be built so it is fit for the future? Jordan Pickford may just hold the key.

A meeting is pencilled in between the Scot and owner Ellis Short in the forthcoming days where the blueprint for next season will be finalised. Moyes is nothing if not brutally honest so it is likely we will shortly learn of just how difficult a task his rebuild will be. With financial fair play, staggering amounts of doubt hanging over the club and an inability to sell players for profit – barring the odd example – the likely scenario is funds at Sunderland will be limited.

However, one obvious source of potential income would be the sale of goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. In fact it might just be key to the entire summer’s rebuild. Just as his team sank lower down the Premier League the Washington born stopper’s stock rose with every passing week. Recently a tremendous performance against Arsenal has simply strengthened his reputation as the emerging young English talent in the game.

Talk from Moyes on the matter, unsurprisingly, has suggested it would take a huge offer for Sunderland to strike a deal. Upwards of £30mil has been mooted with clubs apparently looking to start the bidding at half that amount. The Scot said,

“…I have heard some really derisory sort of figures getting mentioned, and it wouldn’t be any of those figures, I can tell you that.”

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It is difficult to argue with Moyes on this point. £15mil does seem a ‘derisory’ amount in the current climate. It is hoped that if indeed Pickford does leave during the summer the club can at least bank a sizeable transfer fee in order to reinvest wisely. However, with the likes of Papy Djilobodji, Steven Pienaar and Darron Gibson all arriving on Wearside during Moyes’ tenure confidence in his recruitment abilities is not presently high.

Stability

With Pickford being the biggest saleable asset at the club Moyes will likely be tempted to sell more than once during the summer months. This will be especially so if new additions to the squad are hard to attract. The young goalkeeper’s future is bright but for the financial stability of the club and the betterment of the squad it may lie elsewhere.