Sunderland AFC will always be haunted by £380k transfer miss - he became a Barcelona icon | OneFootball

Sunderland will always regret their major transfer blunder from January 2011

Sunderland turned down the opportunity to sign Ivan Rakitic from Schalke on a pre-contract deal in January 2011.

Steve Bruce will always look back on that decision with a tinge of regret given what the Croatian went on to achieve in the years following.

At the time, Rakitic’s deal with the Bundesliga club was set to come to an end that summer, making him a free agent.

The now 37-year-old had been a key figure for the side in their runners-up finish in the German top flight in the 2009-10 season, contributing seven goals and two assists from 29 appearances.

While the follow-up campaign didn’t go according to plan, with the team coming 14th, they still reached the semi-finals of the Champions League before suffering elimination at the hands of Manchester United, but by then the midfielder had departed for Spain.

Ivan Rakitic’s Sunderland links

It was previously reported by Chronicle Live that Sunderland were offered the chance to sign Rakitic in January 2011, with the deal set to cost just £380,000.

However, then manager Bruce opted to turn down that chance, and he ultimately moved on to Sevilla that month.

At the time, Sunderland were an established Premier League club after their 2007 promotion under Roy Keane.

The Black Cats had finished 13th in 2010 and were heading for a 10th place finish under Bruce in 2011.

The prospect of joining the club would’ve been enticing for Rakitic, even if Champions League football wasn’t on the table.

But this period was really the beginning of the team’s slide back down the table, with that 10th place finish being their best in English football since 2001.

Big money moves for the likes of Connor Wickham, Danny Graham, Steven Fletcher and Jozy Altidore in subsequent summers brought their recruitment strategy into focus before ultimately suffering relegation in 2017.

Ivan Rakitic’s stellar achievements

While Sunderland were sliding back down the Premier League table, Rakitic was going on to become a Barcelona legend.

The midfielder joined the Catalan club in the summer of 2014 and was a key part of their treble-winning side in his very first season at the Nou Camp.

He played 32 times in La Liga that first year, contributing five goals and eight assists, as the team reclaimed the league, won the Champions League and completed the set with a Copa del Rey victory.

The Croatia international proved an important part of the club all the way up until his departure in 2020, moving back to Sevilla after winning three more league titles.

Rakitic’s stardom rose to extraordinary heights while Sunderland reached new lows, with the Wearside outfit suffering a second relegation in 2018 while the player was helping his country reach a World Cup final, eventually losing 4-2 to France in Russia.

Missing out on Rakitic was a poor recruitment decision on the surface, but that he was also set to become a free agent only makes it all the worse.

There are no guarantees he would’ve reached the same highs in his own career had he moved to the Stadium of Light, but he had already proven himself as a top talent at the age of just 22 at Schalke.

He was not some total unknown that would’ve equated to a big risk for Sunderland, and that’s why it’s a move the club and Bruce should have some regret over even in the years since.