Sunderland must use this season as a springboard and strengthen over the summer ready for another assault on the Championship, says Tony Mowbray. The Black Cats enjoyed a magnificent return to the second tier, finishing sixth in the table to qualify for the play-offs but fell short in the semi-final with a 3-2 aggregate defeat at the hands of Luton Town.
Sunderland's season was dogged by a catalogue of injuries which left huge holes in their team, with the club playing for half the campaign with no centre-forward, and ending up with no fit centre-halves. If Sunderland are to build on their achievements this term they will need to not only hold on to their best players, but address their deficiencies during the transfer window and make sure they are better equipped next season.
"They've performed really well and I'm proud of them, proud of the fans, proud of the city and I think we should all recognise what this group of players have done," said Mowbray. "But the club has to build.
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"We have to recruit well, strengthen and give ourselves a chance to do it again next year and keep the club with a forward momentum. Of course the club has to build now and they have to keep their best players.
"We have to keep growing. That's football.
"We have to keep building and improving if we want to be a force. I can reel off a list of the teams that are going to be hoping to win promotion from the Championship next season - Southampton are going to be massively strong, and then if it's Leicester, Leeds or Everton, what about them?
"You've got Ipswich Town coming the other way [from League One], a club I know really well with 30,000 fans coming every week and a good coach and good players. Then you've got West Brom, Norwich City and whoever doesn't go up [through the play-offs] out of Luton, Middlesbrough or Coventry.
"It's a really tough league, and we've done incredibly well to be in and around and above some of those teams this season. We need to keep getting better to do it again."
While the injuries to star striker Ross Stewart have been a major topic of conversation throughout much of the season, and more recently the lack of defenders has been highlighted, Sunderland have also been without influential holding midfielder and captain Corry Evans since January and his absence has been keenly felt not only in footballing terms but also the experience he brought to a very young group. Mowbray said: "We never talk about Corry Evans, but he's a leader of men who plays centre-midfield, but who hasn't been there for months and months.
"Never mind the centre-forward that scores all the goals or the three centre-halves that are 67ft 4in that have been unavailable - we can talk about them. But people like Corry Evans are massive losses to this football team, with these young lads."
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