Sunderland, led by Mike Dodds, will use this international break to recover and refuel on the training field after the Black Cats have lost their past seven Championship games.
The Wearside team has suffered greatly since losing Jack Clarke, their primary attacking spark, to the Stadium of Light treatment room. As a result of this bad run of results, when promotion was once perhaps on the horizon, the team is now mired in mid-table mediocrity.
Sunderland’s entire season has been severely hampered by their lack of strong strikers, particularly Mason Burstow, a Chelsea loanee, who has been shooting blanks up top.
Even so, despite Burstow’s continued wastefulness in Sunderland red and white—he has only scored one goal throughout his time there—a former £9 million Black Cats acquisition now has a lower net worth than the 20-year-old failure.
The tenure of Wahbi Khazri at Sunderland
Wahbi Khazri was a great Dutch manager who was bought for a whopping £9 million by Sunderland in 2015. However, he would never fully settle into this new English environment.
After his impressive performances in France, where the former Black Cats player amassed 30 goals and assists in just two seasons at FC Girordins Bordeaux, the 74-time Tunisia international would seek such a compensation.
But when Khazri put in a Black Cats uniform, Sunderland supporters would never quite witness the same magic happen, as the now 33-year-old offensive midfielder would only manage three goals and two assists from 42 games.
As a result, the Wearside club would suffer a significant financial loss when selling their former number ten to Saint-Etienne in 2018. They had previously paid Ligue 1 an initial £6 million for the player five years prior.
It would be remembered as a lackluster signing, as the player now at Montpellier was never able to consistently wow the Sunderland crowd the way he did with an incredible goal against Chelsea in his debut campaign.
The choice to squander the cash appears even more foolish when considering Khazri’s transfer value, which is less than that of Burstow, a 33-year-old midfielder who was playing in Ligue 1 near the conclusion of his career, according to Football Transfers.
What 2024 has in store for Wahbi Khazri
The five-foot-nine creator’s 2024 transfer value is projected to be just €1.4 million (£1.2 million), a significant decrease from the inflated sum Sunderland previously spent to acquire him.
The amount Saint-Etienne even paid to sign Khazri following his forgettable tenure at the Stadium of Light is a significant decrease, as the former Black Cats failure now appears to be less expensive than Burstow, who is estimated to be worth €1.7m (£1.4m) despite the loanee’s disastrous loan switch thus far.
Khazri’s mostly nondescript play for his French employers this season—just one goal and one assist in 24 games—has not helped the situation.
Khazri’s career came to an abrupt end when playing for Montpellier against PSG in their most recent encounter. He managed just 18 touches against the reigning French champions before being substituted after 59 minutes due to his terrible performance. He is not the only one, though, to find life challenging when wearing the Parisian attire.
When Burstow returns to Stamford Bridge at the end of this miserable season, at least Sunderland will know the Blues loanee did not severely damage their bank account.
However, given how much Khazri’s transfer value has dropped, the Black Cats must still be regretting spending so much money to acquire the bust during the height of their Premier League career, before to their noteworthy collapse down the divisions.
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