FASTER, fitter, stronger, and not too shabby in the footballing department either.
It’s always dangerous to read too much into pre-season friendlies, but what little fans have seen of a new look Sunderland this summer will have at least given them reasons to be cheerful.
Their display against Tottenham in the semi-final of the Asia Trophy last week had plenty of positives, and while the final – a 1-0 defeat to Manchester City on Saturday – didn’t go to plan, the Black Cats were far from disgraced against the eventual competition winners.
In fact, Sunderland started the brighter of the two sides, and despite City missing a penalty, and having other chances, the Wearsiders gave a decent show of themselves on a pitch that resembled a local park in mid-October.
Paolo Di Canio’s men have one more pre-season run-out left to play – away to Danish outfit FC Midtjylland next Wednesday.
In an ideal world, the Italian would hope to have all of his transfer business done in terms of new arrivals.
However, while I’m sure work continues to take place behind the seasons, there has been little more than speculation in recent days over who is or isn’t coming to the club.
And it might well be that there are no new arrivals ahead of the clash with the Danes.
That certainly wouldn’t be a catastrophe, but it could mean that Sunderland have to rethink their plans for the start of the season.
Di Canio has made it clear that he is still looking to add two full-backs and a ‘keys to the door’ player to his squad.
But whether they arrive in time to be whipped into shape for the 2013/14 Premier League campaign remains to be seen.
The Sunderland boss has been willing to throw Emanuele Giaccherini, Cabral, Vito Mannone and Jozy Altidore straight into the mix during pre-season.
While others such as David Moberg Karlsson and El-Hadji Ba have been used as substitutes.
Valentin Roberge has only had a couple of minutes’ run out, and Modibo Diakite has missed out with a knock.
But the later the arrivals of further new faces may mean the Italian is reluctant to hand them a starting berth at the beginning of the new season.
So, Sunderland could start with Jack Colback and Craig Gardner as makeshift full-backs against Fulham on August 17.
That’s no huge hardship, both have played there before and have done well out in Hong Kong.
But fans will hope to see two new full-backs and a playmaker in a red and white shirt before too long.