Phil Smith's Sunderland AFC column: Why major announcement is so vital for future transfer windows

Now that Patrick Roberts has signed a new deal running up to the end of the 2025/26 season, with Sunderland holding the option of a further year, the club can head into the next two transfer windows from a position of strength.

When top-tier clubs plot a bid for one of Sunderland's ever-improving young players, which they undoubtedly will do, they will be faced with a significant hurdle. Sunderland simply do not have to sell, unless the bid is so significant and so lucrative, that accepting would enable a transformative investment in multiple other areas of the squad.

Not one player in the squad likely to field a bid in January or next summer is now running down their Sunderland contract, forcing the club to the table whether they like it or not. Any interest in Roberts, who Southampton made a strong play for last summer, is now a complete non-starter. The popular winger has made clear now his future is at Sunderland, a club he has 'loved everything about'.

If those top-tier European sides who made enquiries for Pierre Ekwah on deadline day this summer return, Sunderland can field them knowing that the midfielder is under contract until 2027. The same goes for Dan Ballard and for Trai Hume, who Sunderland actually have the option of a further year. That means he is technically Sunderland's until 2028 should they wish, as is also the case with ever-present goalkeeper Anthony Patterson.

Jack Clarke and Dan Neil seem almost certain to attract bids over the coming windows, but with contracts until 2026 it will take a significant bid to even open the door. The importance of all of this for Sunderland is not just that it allows them to dictate the terms of any negotiations, but that it also ensures that they are not forced into multiple sales in one window.

Sunderland have long accepted that somewhere along the way they might well have to sell a player, but they have also in recent times been quick to reject any notion that they are a selling club by design. Rather, they have made clear that the primary goal is promotion to the Premier League. It quite obviously follows that selling the better players in the side detracts from that goal, and to lose a number all at once risks significantly destabilising the side and setting the club's progress back by three or four windows.

Where Sunderland are realistic is in knowing that until the moment they win promotion to the Premier League, they will not be competing financially with top-tier sides when it comes to wages. For the foreseeable future, they will also not be competing with recently relegated sides who benefit from vast parachute payments.

As such, there will be occasions where there is an offer from the Premier League that pragmatically, it makes sense to entertain. As Sunderland's side continues to develop, it may be that one player outgrows the level of the rest of the side. And that might attract a bid from a club established in the Premier League able to offer wages and a long-term contract that are difficult to resist for the player.

Sunderland's view is that while not the desired outcome, that will allow them to move closer to sustainability without the riches of TV money. It will also allow them to continue lifting their wage ceiling, and their budget for transfer fees when they look to poach young talent of their own from clubs in other leagues.

They would also argue that a key reason why young players are happy to sign these long-term contracts is because there is an implicit understanding that if Sunderland do take time to reach the top tier, they will not stand in the way of a Premier League move providing the finances are right. They also sign these long-term contracts because Sunderland have proven that they will get consistent game time, which is a key argument the club's hierarchy would put forward when calls are made for more experienced players to be brought in and deployed more regularly in the starting XI.

None of this is to say that Sunderland's approach is proving flawless, but it is also fair to say that the protracted saga that led to Ross Stewart leaving for Southampton has proven to be the exception rather than the rule. In the aftermath of that contentious departure Sporting director Kristjaan Speakman was asked how the club could prevent a repeat, to which he essentially responded that you could already see the answer in their business following promotion from League One. Generally they have become less dependent on loan acquisitions, and they have increasingly signed players to long-term contracts right from the off. Take the business from the end of the summer window, for example. Nazariy Rusyn has signed for four years with the option of a fifth, while both Timothée Pembélé and Adil Aouchiche signed five-year deals.

After years of short-term fixes, Sunderland supporters are having to adjust to the reality of players being consistently linked with Premier League moves and for good reason. At some stage, it seems likelier than not that someone will follow Stewart in landing a hugely lucrative move and given his quite outrageous form, there may be a tough decision for Clarke to make at some stage over the next 12 months.

Where supporters can take comfort is that whenever that happens, it will be on Sunderland's terms - as it will with each and every one of their star performers. The overhaul of Sunderland's footballing structure is beginning to yield tangible results, and the Roberts deal is the latest example of it.