Sunderland dud sold for £6 million had more G/A than every Black Cats player available to date….
This former Sunderland playmaker has enjoyed a prosperous career since leaving the Stadium of Light.
Sunderland are a team reborn in the past two years following promotion back to the Championship after spending several years stuck in the pits of League One.
The Black Cats took an alarming drop from the heights of Premier League football and whilst they didn’t know it at the time, a reset across the whole club allowed them to offload their high earners and rewire their recruitment strategy.
In the years that preceded their drop into the third tier, the North East giants made ill-fated decisions in the transfer market, splashing the cash and blowing their wage budget on underperforming talent.
Indeed, Sunderland were incredibly wasteful and the likes of Jack Rodwell, record-signing Didier Ndong and Ricky Alvarez were three of several players who failed to prevent their plight.
Likewise, the acquisition of Wahbi Khazri in January 2016 was another who contributed very little during his time at the club.
How much Sunderland signed Wahbi Khazri for
Sam Allardyce was instated as Sunderland’s manager in October 2015 and was tasked to keep them in the Premier League.
A manager known for working miracles in the fight against survival, Allardyce used January as an opportunity to bolster his squad, making the £9m capture of Khazri from Bordeaux his fourth signing of that window, despite president Jean-Louis Triaud saying the club had no intention of selling the Tunisian international unless a “ridiculously high offer” comes in.
| Sunderland’s winter signings – 2015/16 | |
|---|---|
| Jan Kirchhoff | from Bayern Munich |
| Steve Harper | Free Agent |
| Lamine Kone | from Lorient |
| Wahbi Khazri | from Bordeaux |
| Emmanuel Eboue | Free Agent |
Having beaten off interest in the shape of divisional rivals Aston Villa and Everton to capture the highly-rated attacking midfielder, Sunderland would have expected the 24-year-old, at the time, to become a revelation on English shores.
He arrived as one of the most sought-after playmakers in Ligue 1, posting an impressive 15 goals and 15 assists in 64 appearances for Bordeaux and would have wanted to emulate the likes of Didier Drogba, Eden Hazard and Robert Pires – three exports from France’s top division who became stars in the Premier League.
Unfortunately, Khazri never came close to eclipsing the impact that trio had on England’s top flight and instead, crumbled on the weight of expectation, registering just five goal contributions in 34 top-flight matches.
Allardyce would guide Sunderland to survival in that season, however, relegation in the following sent the 74-cap Tunisian on his way, initially on loan to Rennes before wrapping up a permanent £6m switch to Saint Etienne in June 2018, by which time the Black Cats were in League One and managed by Jack Ross.
What Wahbi Khazri did after leaving Sunderland
Khazri’s career on Wearside may have fallen on deaf ears, but back in France, he unlocked the potential that his formative years promised, both at club level and on the international stage for Tunisia
Whilst he scored the winner for his country in a famous 1-0 victory over France at the 2022 World Cup and hung up his boots as the national side’s second-top scorer in history, he’s also made a name for himself in Ligue 1 with Saint Etienne and Montpelli
