Sunderland defender Titus Bramble is expected to lead the exodus of players who are deemed surplus to requirements by Black Cats manager Martin O’Neill at the Stadium of Light this summer. Goal.com can reveal that O’Neill has warned his players that there will be wholesale changes when the summer transfer window opens next month, and that Bramble is expected to move on along with midfielder Craig Gardner and Egyptian winger Ahmed Elmohamady. Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon has already been told his contract will not be renewed and Connor Wickham is set to follow the former Ipswich Town, Newcastle and Wigan centre-back Bramble out of the exit door on loan. Danish international striker Nicklas Bendtner has already returned to Arsenal following a season on loan at Sunderland, and O’Neill has been tipped to make a move for Norwich City centre-forward Grant Holt, who has had a transfer request rejected by the Carrow Road board of directors. “O’Neill has told them that a lot of them won’t be around when the new season starts, which shows that he means business,” a Wearside source told Goal UK. “Titus will be off because he’s just not Martin O’Neill’s sort of player. He just doesn’t rate him that highly and he won’t stand in his way if there is a move on the cards. Premier League Holt wants Norwich exit “A few others will be on their way as well. Craig Gardner and David Vaughan will probably go and Elmohamady will too, and Wickham will probably be loaned out in the hope that he can regain a bit of confidence because they don’t want to give up on him.” The 30-year-old Bramble – who has 10 England Under-21 caps to his credit - was brought to Sunderland by former Wigan boss Steve Bruce in the summer of 2010 when he signed a three-year contract. But tellingly, he has played just once since the turn of the year - in last weekend’s 1-0 defeat by Manchester United. Wickham joined Sunderland on a four-year deal from Ipswich last summer in an £8 million move, but the 19-year-old has looked out of his depth and a return to Portman Road for a season seems likely as he attempts to reinvigorate a career that has stalled on Wearside. The England Under-21 player has figured just 15 times for Sunderland and has scored a solitary goal since he headed to Wearside from Suffolk last year. Sunderland owner Ellis Short is expected to back O’Neill to the hilt in the transfer market this summer after the squad’s weaknesses were exposed in the latter stages of the season. A decline in form saw the club slip to 13th in the Premier League table following a run of just two wins in 15 outings. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hope its true, I think its badly needed. I know it aint the perfect route to go down but if Martin thinks quite a few of the squad aint good enough then why drag it out! Get them all gone in this transfer window if we can then the gaffer and his coaching staff can concentrate on improving the lads who he wants to keep as well as freeing up space for his own players. Can see players coming in with pace and power which will only make us better. Apparently MoN has sent our scouts over to Holland and Germany so I wonder if we bring anyone one in from overseas.
Think a post a few days ago (poss C'est) discussed incomings and outgoings. Would not like to go down this route (mass changes) again, about 6th transfer window running. Would prefer 3-4 quality signings.
Yeah, but that was Roy Keane and Brucey Boy doing those signings... And Keane had to overspend on ****e to just get the players to keep us up, while Bruce did bring in some good players, and some not so good ones. I trust Martin to get it right, he got the absolute best out of Larrson by signing Sutton, who worked really well with him. He also brought in some excellent players there, and at Villa. If there was any manager I trust to get it right , it's him. Plus I have a feeling after this summer, we wont need to do anymore summer clearouts. Maybe 1-2 quality signings in Jan to shore up the weak spots.
agreed mate, if a clear out is on the cards then this surely will be the last one and I think its best to get all the deadwood off the books asap!!!! Why keep them around? Because our team will take time to get used to each other? Well 2bh I would rather have a good MoN squad that might take 5 or 6games to gel rather than the lot we have now. Get them all out now and then Martin can work with the players he wants and as you say from the January transfer window we can go down the route of 1 or 2 signings each window.
