This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Sunderland are now reaping the rewards from a progressive transfer model, but supporters require little reminder of the club’s previous blunders and Didier Ndong was the most costly of the lot.
The current modus operandi in place at the Stadium of Light provides a stark, yet reassuring contrast to the manner in which Sunderland formerly conducted their business. They forked out significant transfer fees and wages for mercenaries, effectively, who had been attracted to the club solely for financial gain and downed tools when the going got tough.
Sunderland’s biggest challenge upon being relegated to the Championship in 2017 was shifting high-earners with years remaining on their contracts, but the financial state of play was dismal and, in hindsight, it should actually come as not much of a surprise at all that they succumbed to consecutive relegations.
Fast-forward to 2024 and Sunderland are shrewder, smarter, and more strategic in their squad investment. It came at the expense of immediacy to a certain degree, but it can only be a monumental positive – especially when you remember duds like Ndong.
Disastrous Sunderland, Didier Ndong transfer reflection offered
Football League World’s Black Cats fan pundit Eddy Bamber has provided a scathing, though warranted, reflection on the ill-fated Ndong transfer, which remains as a club-record fee to this day.
“Sunderland’s record signing was a player called Didier Ndong. He was signed in the summer of Sunderland’s final season in the Premier League,” Eddy explained to Football League World.
“He was signed for €16m (£13.5m) – and he was terrible in that season in the Premier League. He scored a couple of goals but, on the whole, he wasn’t worth the money at all.
“So when Sunderland got relegated, everyone knew that we weren’t going to recoup the cash. It was just a question of whether he would perform in the Championship and help us get promoted back to the Premier League. The answer to that was no, he was even worse in the Championship than he was in the Premier League, he didn’t want to be there and wasn’t really afraid to hide it.
“His final game was only two weeks into January, he got sent off away to Cardiff, and we lost 4-0 that day. It was a terrible day of football. A 12:30 kick-off at Cardiff, for the fans that travelled, it was diabolical and Ndong being sent off that day just typified it, really.
“He never played for Sunderland again. Of course, Sunderland got relegated that season as well, so we were down to League One and Ndong and another player called Papy Djilobodji – he was even worse, we signed him for £8m, and he was truly terrible, he was beyond appalling – they both refused to turn up for pre-season training.
“It turned into a bit of a saga for a few weeks and Sunderland had only just been bought by Stewart Donald, who was vocally going on the fan podcasts pretending to be a competent owner.
“So he was quite open and frank about it, publicly threatening to destroy these players’ careers. Sunderland would hold onto their registration so they couldn’t play anywhere else but also refuse to play them.
“Djilobodji was the first one to lose his nerve and he reported back, he failed all his fitness tests and he was a disgrace. So he got sacked, they immediately destroyed his contract and off he went. There was no resale value in him at all. I think they just took the hit and binned him off.
“Ndong, though, the club did think they could get some cash. They were never going to get the full amount back, but there was probably £2-3m worth there. So it was a bit more difficult, he was posting pictures of himself on holiday on Instagram [which did not go down well with the fanbase].
“He did eventually return, claiming that he wanted to fight for his place – the club said ‘no, you’ve got to go’. So he eventually signed for another team in France and the club got compensation for it [£4m].
“He then went on to get relegated in France, he failed in the Saudi Pro League, and he’s playing in Iran and not doing very well there. He’s only 30, so he should be playing a lot higher if he was playing in the Premier League in 2016.
| Didier Ndong’s club career, as per Transfermarkt | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Years | Club | Division | Appearances |
| 2012-2015 | CS Sfaxien | Ligue I [Tunisia] | 48 |
| 2015-2016 | Lorient | Ligue 1 | 54 |
| 2016-2018 | Sunderland | Premier League, Championship, League One | 54 |
| 2018 | Watford [loan] | Premier League | 0 |
| 2019 | Guingamp | Ligue 1 | 16 |
| 2019-2023 | Dijon | Ligue 1, Ligue 2 | 90 |
| 2023-2024 | Al Riyadh | Saudi Pro League | 31 |
| 2024- | Esteghlal | Persian Gulf Pro League | 2 |
“But he was a terrible, terrible player. How we thought that he was worth the money we signed him for I really don’t know. Ndong was Sunderland’s record signing, and we did not get any value for money for him at all. He was terrible.”
Sunderland burned serious cash in the Premier League
Ndong perhaps opens himself up to the highest degree of critique due to being the club’s record signing and refusing to fulfill basic contractual obligations.
Indeed, Jack Rodwell may be the single worst signing in all of Sunderland’s history. You could quite reasonably make a case for the ex-England international being among the most costly and disastrous signings throughout the Premier League’s existence, too.
Signed from Manchester City for £10m and on a five-year deal in the summer of 2014, Sunderland won just one of 43 top-flight fixtures with Rodwell on the pitch.
During the episodes of Netflix’s controversial ‘Sunderland Til’ I Die’ documentary, the midfielder received backlash for refusing to take a cut on his £72,000 wages after relegation, remaining the only player to stay on a Premier League salary.
Sunderland were in dire need of cash at that moment in time and Rodwell was not even available for selection. He played just three times all season before they managed to farm him out to Blackburn Rovers in 2018.
The aforementioned Djilobodji was a disaster too, while the long-term ramifications of Sunderland’s questionable loan deal for Inter Milan’s Argentine winger Ricky Alvarez proved destructive. Alvarez had signed on loan in the 2014/15 season and Sunderland were obliged to make the move permanent if they avoided relegation, which is exactly what happened.
However, the ex-Argentina international made just eight league appearances that year amid injury and fitness problems, with Sunderland unwilling to activate their obligation as a result.
In August 2019, a tribunal ruled that Sunderland had to shell out £300,000 to Alvarez’ first professional club – Velez Sarsfield – as part of a FIFA solidarity mechanism, before the flop was later awarded close to £5m following a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling on a loss of salary earnings in his contract with the club, who were in League One by that point.
