Another gem from Jake
Pete Sixsmith gazes through the transfer window, sees little he truly fancies but wonders whether one or other of the men whose names are being bandied about could nevertheless do a job for Sunderland …
There are five days to go before the transfer window slams shut until June and so far there has been about as much excitement as you would get at a concert starring Des O’Connor and Paul (“oops, there goes my finger”) Daniels.
There have been a couple of trialists in at the Academy. Mario Balotelli’s younger brother, Enoch came and went, while the Bosnian international Zlatan Muslimovic is still at the club with us looking at him and him looking at the club.
This morning (Thursday) there is talk of a permanent deal for Kevin Davies, who appears to be surplus to requirements at Bolton, and we are looking at the Sporting Lisbon striker Adrien Silva. That was in the Daily Mail, so maybe not a bang on certainty. Nor would I put money in Sporting’s pockets after they cheated us out of the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1973 – proving that my string of grudges goes back way before upstarts like Coventry City appeared on the scene.
Muslimovic’s last club was PAOK in Thessaloniki – and we have signed players from La Toumba before. In 1998, a small Honduran by the name of Milton Nunez appeared at the club and became the smallest and the most widely reviled player in Sunderland’s history.
He called himself Tyson because he wanted to appear aggressive, but he was no bigger than Jimmy Clitheroe and carried as much weight as Wee Jimmy Krankie. He made his debut in a Reserve game against the Mags at the Stadium and ran around an awful lot. He played two half games for the first team before departing to oblivion – or Guatemala as it is known in football terms.
When we signed him, I spoke to my brother who lives in Thessaloniki and who was friendly with some PAOK fans. He rang me back, chuckling and told me that his mates were creasing themselves that they had actually got money for Nunez and from a decent club. He prophesised that Milton might find the Premier League a wee bit beyond him.
As we all know, he was right and Nunez went down as a genuine legend for Sunderland fans as certainly Reidy’s worst signing and possibly the club’s. Apparently he is still playing at age 39 in the top league in Guatemala, so fair play to him.
The mooted Kevin Davies deal is an interesting one. He has never been my favourite player on account of how he throws his weight round at every opportunity, but he could be a useful short term signing for us. It looks as if Bendtner will miss the next few weeks with his facial injury (pizza shop workers in Copenhagen beware!!) so there may be a need for a replacement. Oumare Tounkara played a bit on Tuesday night, but I don’t know whether he can step up to Premier League level.
It also gives an opportunity for Connor Wickham to lead the line and with games coming up against sides he played against last year when he was at Ipswich, it will give us a chance to see what made The Brucester pay £8m for him.
Looking forward to a footballing treat on Sunday – maybe.
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Davies would be a very poor signing. He’s past it, he can’t manage to get into a poor Bolton Wanderers side. Yes, if this was two or three seasons ago but it just seems pointless. It certainly won’t have the fans rushing back either.
It makes you wonder what our scouts are doing if Davies is the best short-term fix we can come up with.
I really hope this is wrong and we are not in for such an uninspiring player.
There seems to be a consensus that “Davies legs have gone.” This can happen to players very quickly in the later stages of their careers. If Davies is left out in preference to David N’Gog who has to be one of the worst players to appear in the PL then maybe we should ask the reason why.
The Bosnian without a club since the summer doesn’t get the heart racing. If he was any good then you’d think he’d have managed to get himself a game at somewhere at least in some miinor league in Europe or at Coventry City.
As for Enoch (which always seems like an ironic name for a black lad), we should be aware of his genetics and excited by the prospect of some burgeoning talent.
According the someone at Stoke. he was “very raw.” I”d have thought he’d have fit in well. Don’t they like them ‘raw’ at Stoke any more?
Yeah, call it pride, but why should we be looking at anyone Stoke refuses! Don’t we cast off to Stoke anyway.;) And whats happened to Danny Collins and Kenwyne Jones these days?
I’m not excited by any of the names mentioned actually. Davis is 34yrs old.
Its a shame that Pav from Spurs is not available. I rate him. Why are we not in form him?
The only other name that even warrants another look (IMHO) is Hugo Almeida the Portugese striker.
Otherwise, you know we’ve got Campbell coming back. That’ll be like a new signing for us, especially if he gets his sharpness back quickly.
I’m not too bothered about Bendtner being out. I think Wickham will do OK. I doubt very much whether we’ll keep Bendtner after the season loan.
Yeah but Campbell wasn’t prolific before he got injured so I can’t imagine he’s all of a sudden going to come back and smash in the goals. We need a capable striker, someone who can put the ball in the net.
All of those players struggle to score and none would improve our squad. I’d have rather tried Noble than bring in one of these has beens.
Hopefully it’s a load of rubbish.
The problem with relying on Campbell Ian is that he isn’t going to get anywhere near match fit for 4/5 games, and that’s assuming his injury is completely cured/healed.
He wasn’t exactly prolific to start with but had certainly improved from when he first arrived. Getting “match sharp” is also going to take him some time.
Davies will be 35 in two months time, so there’s not a lot of mileage left even his legs haven’t gone already.
We do seem to be looking at the short term, and that’s fine if MON wants to wait until summer to get the players he really feels we need, just as long as we don’t end up lumbered with mediocrity acquired now over the course of the next 18 months. That seems to be the real issue we have to deal with right now in this window.
Ian: as you’ll see with next week’s Who are You?, Stoke fans simply cannot bring themselves to forgive us for our former Player of the Year! They’re like us on Kenwyne: great on his day but how often can he be bothered to have such a day?
But they still love Tommy (despite recent clangers).
And especially Deano. Quote: “My favourite Stoke player,what an engine might not have the skill,or goals but …I can’t explain it HE IS A STAR
:”
Sorensen has been a good solid keeper. I still don’t quite understand Stoke buying Kenwyne Jones and Whitehead. Deano has a good engine and can tackle ok, but on the skill level is nowhere near the likes of Vaughn etc.
Jones is a good player but far too inconsistent to be a top striker.
@Jeremy I personally think we’ll have to wait until summer to spend big on a fox in the box striker.
You’re right in saying Campbell wasn’t prolific to begin with, but there were signs of real promise just before he was injured. Its his speed that psychologically frightens defenders I believe. If you’ve got someone that quick then the opposition will always be weary of pressing too far up in case they get clobbered on the counter attack.
Personally I’m disappointed that Cisse went up the road, and we’ve not made a move on Pav.
Yes Ian, I agree. I was disappointed in the summer when we should have been in for Ba. Having said that, had we signed a striker then we may have still had Bruce at the helm and not MON.
You’re right, we’ll have to wait a few more months to see proper money being splashed on forwards but from the sound of things MON is concerned at the Bendtner injury and realises that something needs to be done immediately.
I’ve never been keen on Pavylychenko, but he would certainly bring something else to the squad. There’s no doubt about that.
We probably were in for Ba but West Ham would have reported us for talking to him before given the green light to do so therefore we backed off.
Yes, Bruce would have certainly have still been here if we had a good striker. So perhaps its a blessings in disguise since we now have MON.
I was one of those people who thought that SB did OK. Our defence was mean.
Its just that he was cursed with injuries, and he failed to replace Bent and let Gyan leave. Those three things sunk him. He’s was not a bad manager.
Ian said I was one of those people who thought that SB did OK.” “He’s was not a bad manager.”
Mnnn………………….. Bruce was losing games for months with the same players.
Martin O’Neill is winning games with the same players and has had injuries to Bardsley, Bramble, Turner, Kilgallon, Brown, Meyler still recovering, Campbell, Mignolet, Gordon, and now Bendtner.
Run that by us again? How does that work exactly?
I think Bendtner will be a miss unless Wickham can take on his role. A fit again Campbell will be a bonus but we need a forward who can hold up the ball and stretch defences making room for Sess and the midfield to have a go. We are creating chances under MON that we weren’t before.
I see Campbell as a better bet than Ji coming off the bench or as a second striker taking on Sess’s brief.
That’s not to say that I think Sess should be benched, but a fit Campbell would allow MON to consider using him in a different way.
At least now, we have a thinking manager and not one who has only one strategy.
We have done more than OK over the past 2 months with the players we have and as stated we have had injuries, but long term we need a prolific striker in the Bent mould and Davies id just a stop gap. Pav would be useful but not prolific. MON doesn’t seem a panic merchant and realistically 8th is about as high as we can get and relegation worries seem to be in the past. The point is if we waste money now we will be restricted in the summer, if Ji and Whickham are worth their salt they will show something and we will see if they have a future, so now is the time for them show us how good they are or can be.
I wonder if Bellion or Le Tallec are still available… If not, I’ll sign.