Sunderland have added Chuba Akpom to their list of January striker targets. The former Middlesbrough hitman has been linked with a sensational return to the north-east.
Chuba Akpom took the Championship by storm in the 2022/23 season. He scored 28 goals and scooped a host of individual accolades, including the Golden Boot and two Championship Player of the Season awards.
It landed him a career-changing move to Ajax in 2023 where he’s since proved relatively prolific, with 23 goals in 67 total appearances for the Dutch giants.
With the Black Cats in desperate need of a new striker following Aaron Connolly’s move to Millwall, Sunderland have been linked with Akpom. Will Still’s RC Lens and French rivals Lille are also linked.
Sunderland have just Wilson and Eliezer Mayenda as options in attack following Connolly’s departure. The going is good right now but an injury to either player could really derail the Black Cats’ impressive 2024/25 season so far.
Chuba Akpom uninterested in possible Sunderland move
Almost as quickly as the rumour has come about, it’s seemingly been put to bed. An emerging report from Dutch outlet AD has revealed that Akpom simply isn’t interested in a move to Sunderland. That’s all it says… ‘Chuba Akpom has no interest in Sunderland’.
One can only assume that Akpom is either uninterested in a return to England and the north-east, or to the Championship, or that he still has strong ties to Middlesbrough and he wouldn’t want to tarnish his reputation there by joining rivals Sunderland.
So it seems like Akpom’s links to the Stadium of Light were fleeting. But they do offer an indication into what Kristjaan Speakman is looking for right now.
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What Kristjaan Speakman wants in a new Sunderland striker
Sunderland and needing a new striker have gone hand in hand over the last few seasons. Despite signing two in the summer in Isidor and Connolly, Speakman now needs more.
But links to Akpom, if they were to be believed, suggest that Speakman wants to sign a striker with a proven Championship record, which is something he tried to do with the Connolly signing.
Akpom would be a completely different gamble to Connolly. But it doesn’t seem like a move that’s going to happen now anyway.
Either way, links to Akpom show Sunderland’s eagerness to not only sign a striker before the February 3rd deadline, but to ideally sign one who has shown before that they can cut it in the Championship.