Sunderland have long term savior in Wahbi Khazri
By Josh Sippie
Sunderland have had a very active January transfer window and Wahbi Khazri, may be the final piece towards pushing out of relegation.
Over the past few years Sunderland have battled relegation unlike any other team. Yet they always manage to stay afloat in the top flight. Teams come and go but Sunderland manage to crawl out of the basement every single time. Sometimes it takes a win at Manchester City to secure it, but they always manage to do it.
This time around, the Black Cats may be looking to avoid the late heroics and crawl out of the basement right this instance, without another moment lost. It has been a very active January for the club, as even Sam Allardyce has admitted that he is running a risk with the turnover of players at his new club.
“It’s a calculated risk,” he said, via Chronicle Live. Allardyce joined Sunderland in October so this is the first transfer window he has had with the club and it is quite clear that he wants to make a difference and keep the Cats in the Premiership.
His two biggest signings have been defender Jan Kirchhoff and the newest addition, Wahbi Khazri. While neither has ever featured in the EPL and Kirchhoff had an iffy debut, the intention behind the two signings is clear. Sunderland have the worst defense in the league, hence Kirchhoff. They also have no creative center, hence Khazri.
The signing of Khazri may be the piece that pushes Sunderland into safety. While they sit behind Newcastle, Norwich and a plummeting Swansea, there are only six points of separation between those three more-likely relegation contenders. Bournemouth sits sandwiched in there, too, but they have the power to maintain top flight football as well.
Khazri is a shrewd pickup. In a Ligue 1 that is incredibly top-heavy, the 24-year-old Tunisian had put up an impressive showing at seventh place Bordeaux. He had netted five times and assisted on seven while contributing nearly three key passes per appearance.
While his versatility could take him all over the pitch, he has made the majority of his starts at the No. 10 role that Sunderland so desperately needed. With a few speed merchants at his disposal, Khazri should find decent success creating chances, even being in a new league.
Sunderland had been on the brink of turning it around for a while, they just needed that final push over the top. Khazri is it. Looking at Sunderland’s past few results, none, aside from the second half at Tottenham, have been particularly awful. They drew 1-1 to Bournemouth, beat 10-man Swansea, 4-2, lost a hard-fought battle with Arsenal, comprehensively beat Aston Villa and narrowly missed out on points against Liverpool. Those are not exactly deafening, relegation-worthy results.
An extra creative mind or two is all that Sunderland needs to turn those results into more points.
What makes these signings so important is that they are built for the long haul. Kirchhoff is just 25 and Khazri is 24, giving Sam Allardyce two potentially reliable tools with which to reconstruct an ever-floundering Sunderland side around. That way, the hope is that they will not have to scramble for dear life every time the season starts winding down.