Tony Mowbray plans Sunderland return for Ellis Simms with Sean Dyche feet under the desk at Everton
Tony Mowbray wants Everton striker Ellis Simms back at Sunderland now that he assumes Sean Dyche has got “his feet under the desk”.
The 22-year-old forward spent the first half of the season on loan at the Stadium of Light with the promotion chasers, scoring seven times in the second tier.
He was suddenly recalled this month as Frank Lampard looked for attacking help, and there were suggestions he could be packaged up into a deal to sign Viktor Gyokeres [TEAMtalk, 7 January] in the January window, but with the former boss sacked after giving Simms 15 minutes action in two defeats Dyche looks like having a late-window decision to make.
The Black Cats boss said, as per the Northern Echo: “Ellis Simms, if he comes back will be huge for this football club, because he gives us a focal point at the front end of the pitch. He scored some massively important goals before he was recalled to Everton.
“There’s a few days to go. I’m assuming Sean (Dyche) is now in with his feet under the desk. Whether they make a quick decision on Ellis Simms, I don’t know. Whether they bring another striker in and Ellis is allowed to come back, it would be pretty appropriate for our team to give us a focal point and score goals.”
Needed
Dominic Calvert-Lewin is the main man, and despite his injury issues he is actually becoming more and more important as the months go by as alternative weapons are sold.
Richarlison went in the summer and Anthony Gordon just left for Newcastle, and while they are better than nothing Neal Maupay and Dwight McNeil are downgrades on that pair.
Simms isn’t ready to be the top guy, but the situation has got serious enough that anybody who might be able to put the ball in the net is a key asset.
If Kevin Thelwell can work with Dyche, who still hasn’t officially been announced, in the final hours of the window to use the money from Gordon for one or two forwards then that is the only way Simms can be allowed to go back to his loan.
The new manager needs options, and he’s already lost one in the now-Magpies man, so while it is nobody’s first choice to disrupt Simms’ development on loan it would be foolhardy to deprive the incoming boss of yet another player.
The end of the window has the potential to make all the difference in what is sure to be a tense relegation battle from this point on.