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Categories:Analysis,Championship,Market Movers,Opinion,Sunderland,Sunderland News

Tags:safc news,Black Cats,Championship,Kristjaan Speakman,League One,luke onien,Market Movers,SAFC,Stadium of Light,Sunderland,Sunderland news,Tony Mowbray,wycombe

Sunderlandhave enjoyed a strong start to life back in the second division of English football and currently sit fifth in theChampionshiptable as they head into October.

Kristjaan Speakman dipped into the transfer market to bolster the squad in the summer by signing the likes of Ellis Simms, Daniel Ballard, and Edouard Michut.

However, some of the players who helped to secure promotion out ofLeague Onein 2021/22 have been among their top performers this term.

Ross Stewart, Alex Pritchard and Luke ONien are all in thetop-sevenplayers at the club in terms of average SofaScore ratings this season.

Sunderlands work in the market has been superb in recent seasons and ONien is one of the signings they played a blinder with when they snapped him up four years ago.

The Black Cats signed him fromWycombefor an undisclosed fee in the summer of 2018, with the midfielder who signed a two-year deal describing it as an honour to sign for the club. Transfermarkt valued him at135kat the time of the move and that is a valuation he had held since August 2016.

The5k-per-weekbattler was previously hailedby former manager Jack Ross. The Scottish bosssaid:

He ticked a lot of boxes and then even when we did one-v-one stuff in training, he is awkward to get past, he is physical, competitive, and he doesnt like people going by him. He has been a revelation in that respect, and credit to him for how he has faced that challenge.

When you play him in the middle of the pitch, he covers so much ground because you are involved all the time in the game.

ONien quickly established himself as a key player for Sunderland as he played40League One matches including the play-offs andchipped inwith five goals and six assists.

In the following three seasons, he averaged aSofaScore rating of 7.02 or higherin the third tier as he amassed another104appearances in the division, which shows that he consistently delivered quality performances on the pitch for the club at that level.

His form led toTransfermarktupdating his valuation to 1.08m at the end of June 2022. This means that his value has rocketed by 700% since 2016 and this explains perfectly why Sunderland played a blinder by bringing him in back in 2018, as he has developed and improved during his time on Wearside whilst being a crucial member of the squad.

Since making the step up to the Championship, ONien has averaged aSofaScore rating of 6.92across nine appearances making3.7tackles and interceptions per game. Hopefully, he will now continue to prove his worth and increase his value as he continues to excel in the second tier for the Black Cats.