Sunderland: Putting all eggs in West Ham basket would show Black Cats have not learned from 23/24 mistakes - View | OneFootball

The Black Cats are the frontrunners to sign Mubama on a free following the end of his contract at West Ham, but must bring in more depth.

Sunderland are expected to complete the signing of Divin Mubama following the expiration of his West Ham United contract, but must be careful to not repeat the same mistakes from last season.

The Black Cats are favourties to win the signature of the 19-year-old, according to GiveMeSport. However, after a torrid 2023/24 in the forward positions, they must bring in more depth to help Mubama grow into the team.

The former Hammer played 12 times for his club last year, featuring in five Premier League games, three domestic cup fixtures and four Europa League matches as West Ham reached the quarter-finals of the competition.

The 2022/23 Europa Conference League winners have not been able to convince Mubama to sign a new contract after putting pen-to-paper on first professional deal at the London Stadium in October 2021.

Mubama is not experienced enough to be relied upon

Although he featured for West Ham at points last season, Mubama still lacks substantial minutes in professional football, and this makes his signing a risk for Sunderland.

He played a full 90 just twice in senior football in 2023/24, turning out for West Ham's U21s in the EFL Trophy against Cheltenham Town and Colchester United, scoring in both games.

Mubama is extremely talented, however, Sunderland must bring in more players around him with experience.

The 19-year-old has been surrounded by older players throughout his time at West Ham, and has been able to learn greatly from them, but the expectations of him in the Premier League were much lower than that of those he will have held to him if he makes the switch to the Stadium of Light.

He will need to reach double-figures in goals at a minimum if Sunderland want to reach higher than a mid-table finish. Nevertheless, a striker with a history of scoring in the Championship could be the perfect way to mould Mubama into a 20 goal-a-season forward in the future.

Sunderland must act to stop a repeat of last year's mistakes

The Black Cats went through the entirety of last season without a strike r with proper experience of senior football in England.

Portuguese youngster, Luis Semedo was given the number nine shirt, and played in 23 league games, but these all came without a goal. Mason Burstow was also given a run of games after signing on loan from Chelsea, but he found the back of the net just once.

Ukrainian striker, Nazariy Rusyn, joined the club on deadline day last summer, with the hope that he could replace the goal-threat lost by the sale of Ross Stewart to Southampton. But, Rusyn was plagued by inconsistency, scoring only twice, eight less than Stewart scored in only 13 games the season prior.

Eliezer Mayenda was another youngster tasked with leading the line at points last season, yet a torn muscle kept him out of the squad throughout the opening months, before a lack of goals saw him loaned out to Hibernian, where he also struggled, featuring in just two games.

Instead, Sunderland relied on goals from elsewhere, with Jack Clarke scoring 15 goals from the wing, but he has been heavily linked with a move away from the north-east this summer.

If Clarke is sold, then Sunderland will lose 28.8% of their league goals from last season, with the winger's goals accounting for a gain of six points. A loss of those points would have dropped the Black Cats from 16th to 21st.

Regis Le Bris can not afford to be caught lacking up front in his first season in charge, and with the pressure from 40,000 Sunderland fans, a poor start could spring questions about their transfer tactics.