Sunderland Transfers: Analysing The 6 Signings That Got De Fanti Sacked

On Friday, Sunderland got rid of Director of Football Roberto de Fanti after a mere six months at the club. Unhappy with previous manager Martin O'Neill's dealings in the transfer market, owner Ellis Short bought the Italian in with the intentions of strengthening a squad that finished 17th in the Premier League. Theoretically a Director of Football is an ideal role for most football clubs. Providing a manager with new players while efficiently managing the club's transfer spends, they can be a workhorse in the transfer market, thereby leaving the manager to focus on matters on the training ground. In practice, the role can cause great tension between themselves and the gaffer. Often managers resent having players forced upon them or being unable to take on board their own playing staff, with the Director of Football finding himself in the firing line if a recruit fails to set the ground running. Ask Damien Comolli, who bizarrely signed Andy Carroll for a British-record £35 million and a host of other inadequate players before being disposed of by Liverpool. Remarkably, de Fanti appears to have left the playing squad in a worst state than when he inherited it. A handful of recruits have been successful, though they remain a small minority. Ki Sung-Yeung has been at the centre of their recent revival, albeit on a short-term switch from Swansea, while Vito Mannone and Emmanuelle Giaccherini have both shown glimpses of promise. Speaking to the club's website early in his brief tenure, de Fanti stated: "Sometimes, if you wait 48 hours the player is gone. I went to sign Cabral at 2am in a restaurant and I was not leaving until I got his signature. Then 48 hours later he had offers from two clubs in the Bundesliga. If we had waited longer we would probably not have Cabral now." Sunderland fans probably wish he never bothered. Despite a large transfer kitty, the Italian has come under fire from both managers at the Stadium of Light this season. Fellow countryman Paulo Di Canio claimed he didn't get the players he wanted in the transfer window, while he has been largely shunned by Di Canio's replacement Gus Poyet, who has masterminded a change in fortunes based largely around last season's squad. Di Canio and de Fanti are not the only ones to have departed Wearside this season, with some of the woefully inadequate recruits already out the door at the first opportunity. We look back at the ill-advised decisions de Fanti took in the summer that left the Mackems facing a battle against relegation and himself being handed his P45.