The recent acquisition of two more strikers suggests that the club will not make the same mistake twice.

Losing Daryl Murphy when we were around the top of the Championship table in 2016 and then failing to replace him under Marcus Evans and Mick McCarthy cost us dearly that year, and we are only just beginning to recover from it now.

Nathan Broadhead is the forward everyone seems to be talking about, but it is not all good news. He is injury-prone and Sunderland supporters seem to think he is a bit overrated. It might be sour grapes on their part but let's take a look at what they say.

Commenting in the Sunderland Post one supporter said, “No chance at £1.5 million with his injury record. He's not played a full match this season so far, has he?”

And Steven Stubbs said this: "His lack of ambition is the thing that puts me off the most, 24 and hasn’t played 100 games of professional football. Could’ve been a very important player for us if he wasn’t afraid of competition. I’m sure he will do well in League One though.”

That was a bit disparaging, wasn't it! That said, Town have done what they had to do and recruited early in the transfer window. This will give them a chance of pushing on and avoiding the dreaded play-offs, which are not good for supporters with very weak hearts!

Town have been after George Hirst for some time, so it is nice they have finally got this one over the line as well. It is a shame it is only a loan until the end of the season, but as he has signed a new three-year contract with Leicester City recently, we could not expect anything else.

It does give the Blues a chance to assess their options and if he excels then the Foxes might just be tempted to sell.

Europablue added 22:53 - Jan 10 The video compilation of his goals at Sunderland is very impressive. Then again, most players can look good in a video compilation. Is he injury prone, or did he just get injured once? I don't trust my own judgment on these two, but MA and KM have earnt my trust, and therefore I am very excited about these two. You'd imagine the idea would be for Broadhead to feature very prominently considering he is the record signing of the KM era. Now it looks like we have options on the bench and can change things up when it's not going our way. Hirst looks decent. The only blemish is that he turned us down and is only coming now because he failed in the Championship. It's not easy to come into a club on loan and be expected to be on the same wavelength as the other players. Anyway, if Hirst is an excellent League One player and hopeless at Championship level, I don't really care because it's all about getting promoted. If he does well, we may just buy him as a Championship club.

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dusth added 09:44 - Jan 11 Sounds very like sour grapes to me. That's supporters everywhere - you're a god until you sign for someone else.
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JackNorthStand added 12:41 - Jan 11 We didn't lose Daryl Murphy when we were top of the table, we lost him in the Summer, later in the transfer window and never replaced him for the following season. The mistake the play off season was not strengthening in January, when we were seriously punching above our weight.
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JackNorthStand added 12:42 - Jan 11 Good article by the way, just a correction on the Daryl Murphy point.
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Pessimistic added 14:07 - Jan 11 Thanks, Jack. Sorry about that. I should have researched it, and not relied on my dodgy memory, but I was in a bit of a rush...
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ElephantintheRoom added 07:01 - Jan 15 Am I alone in thinking signing two overrated and unproven 24 yr old players, one of who hasn’t scored or provided an assist all season and the other is injury-prone is a bit daft in a very well stocked attack that is free scoring? Not sure its beneficial - time will tell - but if there is a problem it seems to be letting goals in. IF it takes time to integrate them or either is a third division Ronaldo, Plymouth and Sheffield Wed could be out of sight by the time Sheffield Wed pay a visit to Portman Road

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