"Disastrous bit of transfer activity" - Sunderland and Wigan Athletic agreement outlined as worst in club history | OneFootball

FLW's Sunderland fan pundit outlines the worst transfer the club have made in recent history - Will Grigg from Wigan Athletic.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Will Grigg is widely-renowned as one of Sunderland's most disastrous ever signings, after the Black Cats signed him in a big-money move from Wigan Athletic in League One.

Grigg rose to prominence in 2016, which led to the birth of the notorious "Will Grigg's on Fire" chant after he netted 25 times in 45 league games for Wigan Athletic that season. Whilst such form couldn't be replicated in the Championship, the season prior to his move to the Stadium of Light, Grigg scored 26 times in 53 appearances across all competitions,

Wigan's second League One title success in three years saw them swap divisions with Sunderland ahead of the 2018/19, with questions asked as to whether Grigg would handle the step-up better than in previous seasons. In 17 league games, he netted just four times in the second tier.

However, due to his exploits in League One, Sunderland still had the Northern Ireland international on their radar, and he joined in January 2019 for a fee in the region of £3 million - a record paid by any third tier side.

Will Grigg’s time at Sunderland underwhelmed massively, with the Northern Irishman only making 47 league appearances in three seasons with the club. His performances were disappointing as well, and he was ultimately shipped out on loan to MK Dons and Rotherham United in 2021, which was a disastrous ending to his time after a poor return with the Black Cats.

Sunderland's disastrous signing of Will Grigg from Wigan Athletic

No opposition defence was terrified to see Grigg in the Sunderland lineup during his time at the Stadium of Light, as he scored just five times for the club.

Football League World's Sunderland fan pundit, Travis Martin, was quizzed on who he believes the worst acquisition is in the club's recent history, and he gave Grigg as one of two answers in recent memory.

He said: "Thankfully, with new ownership, the one bonus of owners not spending too much money is that they are less likely to get things disastrously wrong with the finances of the club.

"The most disastrous bit of transfer activity I've seen in my time as a sSunderland supporter was the acquisition of Will Grigg from Wigan Athletic in League One.

"We had a bit of a striking crisis that season, similar to what we have had the last couple of years in the Championship. That whole situation was well-documented on Netflix. "But Wigan rejected a bid that was already too much for a striker that had only been proven for about a season and only recently got on the international stage with Northern Ireland. "After rejecting that and the club not wanting to sell him, and Will Grigg not wanting to leave the club, we decided to put in an even more astronomical offer for the man who didn't want to leave. "Wigan's eyes probably enlarged to the size of trees at the amount of money we offered for him. We were then met with this centre-forward that didn't fit in our system, who had only managed a proven record with a certain system at Wigan, and only had a season in League One and wasn't a recognised Championship striker. "He was too much and he didn't really want to be at the club, and it was a terrible bit of business. We ended up selling him the season after scoring very few goals and was unprolific at Sunderland, and he was having to then restart his career with Chesterfield. "There's no doubt he is a goalscorer but at that time he didn't want to be at the club. I think that should apply to business we're doing at the minute, and that's why Sunderland didn't pursue the deal for Ike Ugbo. "I can think of no worse transfer acquisition than Will Grigg. Perhaps Didier Ndong in the Premier League for a club-record fee? He had one season in the Premier League and now plays his football in the third tier in France. "He was absolutely awful and we had the option to bring in Yann M'Vila in his prime but David Moyes decided against that. "He got his own way with a young Didier Ndong, and besides an away game against Crystal Palace where he looked absolutely incredible, he was absolutely terrible and looked incapable of making a five-yard pass.

"So either Ndong in the Premier League if you go back a little bit further or Will Grigg in more recent times during our first year in League One."

Will Grigg's career since Sunderland

Grigg then joined former club MK Dons on loan for the remainder of the campaign and scored eight times in 20 appearances, as the side finished 13th place in League One.

The following season, Grigg was loaned out again, this time to Rotherham United following their relegation to the third tier. The experienced striker played a bit-part role in Paul Warne's side's eventual promotion, having started in 13 of his 19 league appearances but only scoring twice.

Sunderland then joined the Millers and Wigan as a promoted outfit in May 2022, but Grigg was one of 16 players who were released after the club's play-off final success, after scoring just eight times in 62 appearances.

He would then return to Stadium MK for the 2022/23 campaign under Liam Manning and latterly, Mark Jackson. However, in the most recent campaign, Grigg got back to his fruitful best, with the the 33-year-old reunited with his former Wigan boss Paul Cook at National League side Chesterfield for an undisclosed fee.

He found the net on 24 occasions in 38 games in the National League, helping Chesterfield to the title and a return to League Two.