Sunderland AFC: £4m striker signing dubbed “a total disaster”.

Due to his inability to live up to his price tag at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland’s decision to spend £4 million to recruit veteran

striker Will Grigg in January 2019 has been noted as one that still surprises their supporters to this day.

Football fans became familiar with Grigg from his Euro 2016 chant while he was a player for Wigan Athletic. The Black Cats paid a

reported £4 million for his services during their first season in the third division of English football since 1987 due to his success for

multiple clubs in League One.After two loan stints overseas, he eventually departed the team on a free transfer in 2022.

Fan pundit still shocked by decision to sign Grigg for hefty fee

Grigg had been a consistent goal scorer at the third-tier level for a number of clubs, including Wigan, Walsall, and MK Dons. Many

thought Sunderland made a wise move when he signed him at the age of 27, but it was a big financial commitment for a player who

needed to start winning right away.

Rather, he never really settled in at the Stadium of Light, scoring five goals in 22 games during his debut season and three goals in 27

games during his subsequent year as the Black Cats battled to escape League One.

Due to his forgettable stint, Eddie Bamber, a fan commentator for FLW’s Sunderland, remembered his signing when we questioned

him about a choice the club made that still surprises him.

He said: “The decision to sign Will Grigg for four million pounds still leaves me baffled.

“Bear in mind, this was in League One in 2019. In today’s money that’s an extra few million quid.

“It was off the back of Josh Maja deciding he wanted to leave, and he had forced the club’s hand into selling him in January just so

they could make around one-and-a-half million pounds.

“In hindsight, it would have been better to have just kept him until that summer and let him go on a free transfer. He would have

scored more goals than Grigg and that might have got us over the line.

“As for the decision itself to sign Grigg, it just showed that the owner was well in over his head.

“He didn’t know what he was doing, and, after the release of the Sunderland ‘Til I Die documentary on Netflix we got the added

context, which showed that perhaps he may have done it for the cameras.

“He might have been trying to show a bit of bravado and let his ego get in the way.

“He also wanted to make a quick buck so, to sign Will Grigg for £4m, as ridiculous as that is, if it had got us over the line he could have

sold the club for twice as much money as he bought it for.

“That wasn’t the case. Grigg didn’t want to be here, and the fans didn’t want him.

“It was a total disaster. Quite literally four million pounds down the drain.”

Will Grigg admitted that he struggled at Sunderland

Grigg was reportedly taken by surprise by the move and had not anticipated leaving Wigan so late in the January transfer window, therefore it is unlikely that he ever settled at Sunderland.