Sunderland: Are Wilson Isidor’s goals the missing link?

In fact, it was Clarke’s departure for newly promoted Ipswich Town in August that opened the door for Sunderland’s new striker to arrive.

Isidor was brought in on loan for the season from Zenit St Petersburg with an option to buy at the end of that.

A member of the same France youth set-up as Arsenal centre-back William Saliba and Chelsea pair Benoit Badiashile and Wesley Fofana, Isidor left Monaco in January 2022 for Lokomotiv Moscow, not long before the war in Ukraine began.

As Russian football was excluded from European competition, he scored seven goals in his first six games for Lokomotiv and managed eight in 20 games the following season, including a run of six in his last seven games, all scored off the bench.

That prompted a move to Zenit, where although he scored just eight minutes into his debut from the start, he would soon become a regular as a substitute.