Just to rub salt into Sunderland’s wounds, Red Star Belgrade goal-machine Richmond Boakye cannot stop scoring in Serbia.
There are a myriad of reasons why Sunderland have gone from the Premier League to the Championship relegation zone in the blinking of an eye.
You could certainly bring dreadful recruitment, slack defending, a lack of investment and David Moyes’ disastrous managerial reign into the mix. Yet, the fact that Sunderland have scored just 21 goals in all competitions in 2017 is pretty damning too.
Especially when you consider that a man they wanted in the summer has hit the back of the net on eight further occasions in the calendar year. For Red Star Belgrade, Richmond Boakye has plundered 29 goals alone in 2017, according to Ghana Soccer Net. For context, that is the same number as Cristiano Ronaldo.
15 goals in 21 league games since signing for Serbian giants Red Star is impressive enough but a tally of seven in eight Europa League fixtures, including qualifiers, is nothing short of remarkable.
Just imagine, then, how useful Boakye would have been to Sunderland had they managed to land him in the summer. GhanaSoccerNet reported at the start of the transfer window that the Black Cats were keen after losing last season’s talismanic goalscorer Jermain Defoe.
However, after Serie B side Latina were declared bankrupt at the end of the 2016/17 and demoted to the amateur leagues, Boakye made a loan deal at Red Star permanent after the financially stricken Italians made all their players available for free.
Needless to see, he’d have been both an astute and affordable signing for a cash-strapped and profligate Sunderland side.
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