“Come on, Kyril — dream a little and take a gamble this summer!”

It’s the first weekend without any league football, and the franchise crap of the Premier League holds no real interest as we all know what’s going to happen.

The 115-charged Manchester City will win the league, another season will go by with Jaap Stam continuing to be right about Gary Neville, and every so-called expert will say it’s been a good season for Newcastle United.

As we await news from the Stadium of Light, I’ve been thinking of what I’d like to see happen. I’ve been sitting in the sun so I may have sunstroke, but just imagine…

• We appoint Jordan Henderson as our new player-coach.
• We don’t sell any of our squad, and retain Jack Clarke.
• We take advantage of the Manchester United clear out and sign Amad.

I know people will say it’s definitely sunstroke, but there’s some logic in my thinking.

First and foremost, Henderson’s career is entering its sunset, so after the European Championships, it could just be the time for him to come home.

Next, during the past four transfer windows, we’ve built a squad based on a ‘model’, so now is the time for the model to evolve, with that evolution not being selling but investing to supplement what we have.

With that in mind, a £25 million investment should do the trick.

A gamble, yes, but a calculated one as the assets we have can be retained for a real go at promotion.

Come on, KLD. Dream a little! Imagine a midfield with Henderson and Dan Neil, Bellingham as a nine, and Clarke and Amad with Semedo as the striker. This would be real strength in depth, with Roberts, Ba, Rigg, Watson, Ekwah, Aouchiche, Mundle and Rusyn as well.

Neil Watkinson

Ed’s Note [Phil]: Hi, Neil. Thank you for your letter.

I think the demands for Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and his team to alter their strategy this summer will probably grow louder with every passing week, but to be perfectly honest with you, I don’t see them changing their approach very much, if at all.

The only way that big money signings will be made is on the back of player sales, and not in addition to retaining our most valuable players.

If and when the likes of Jack Clarke leave the club, which feels like a certainty this summer, we should see ‘the model’ progress to its next stage: using the money received to strengthen the team and hopefully keep us moving forward.

Unfortunately, I think that hoping for the likes of Henderson and Amad to return to Sunderland this summer is forlorn, and I expect us to sign similar types of players as we’ve done for the last two windows: promising youngsters with the potential to become key players for us.

I’d like to be proven wrong, but I’d be surprised if I was.

Dear Roker Report,

I think we need someone like Bolo Zenden.

Simon Marshall

Ed’s Note [Phil]: Hi, Simon. Thank you for your letter.

Zenden would fit into the bracket of the type of coach that we seem to be targeting: young, with experience of continental football, and presumably used to working within a similar type of structure to the one we currently have.

He’d certainly give the fans a lift as an ex-Sunderland player, but I haven’t seen his name linked with us, so maybe that’s a non-starter.

Dear Roker Report,

Mike Dodds has said that the club is ‘talking strategy’ on loan players for next season, but the new head coach will have no say in it.

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus needs to do the right thing and sell the club to someone who knows what it’s about, as neither he nor Kristjaan Speakman have a clue.

Ian Frame

Ed’s Note [Phil]: Hi, Ian. Thank you for getting in touch.

I’m by no means of the opinion that the current situation at Sunderland is irretrievable for Dreyfus and Speakman, but they face a huge task to rebuild trust and to show that the mistakes of last season will be learned from and not repeated.

Securing the services of a head coach who’s suited to Sunderland would be a good start, and some transfer business that addresses the glaring weaknesses in our squad ideally needs to follow.

They can certainly turn it around this summer and make sure that we start to move forward again during 2024/2025, but whether they’ll be able to succeed is another matter entirely.