Cash squeeze forces Sunderland boss Bruce to bargain-hunt By Sportsmail Reporter Last updated at 11:08 PM on 18th June 2011 Comments (0) Add to My Stories Share Sunderland boss Steve Bruce will complete two Bosman signings this week as he works under strict financial restrictions at the Stadium of Light. Bruce will wrap up deals for Birmingham winger Sebastian Larsson and Coventry keeper Keiren Westwood without paying a transfer fee, despite having just received £16million from Liverpool for England Under-21 midfielder Jordan Henderson. Free agent: Sebastien Larsson has agreed to join Sunderland And his replacement for Darren Bent, sold to Aston Villa for £24m in January, is likely to be Liverpool's David Ngog for the cut-price sum of £4.5m. Sunderland owner Ellis Short is now operating a strict business plan, having splashed out millions to establish the club in the Premier League. now lets have a few more brucie
The Sweden international had interest from Arsenal, Aston Villa and Newcastle after leaving Birmingham on a free but decided to join Bruce who signed him for Birmingham four years ago. Free agent: Sebastien Larsson has agreed to join Sunderland His father revealed the midfielder shunned an 11th-hour approach from Arsenal and Aston Villa to sign with the Black Cats. 'Steve Bruce has done much to bring about a deal and been very active,' said the player's father, Svante told Sport-Folket
Departing Coventry City goalkeeper Keiren Westwood is being backed for success at Sunderland. Westwood's former boss when he was at Carlisle, Paul Simpson, has backed the 26-year-old to be a success at the Stadium of Light. He told The Journal: "Keiren was certain in his mind what he wanted to do and he deserves it for achieving a move to a Premier League club. "He was strong enough to deal with his contract situation and still perform, even though there was so much going on. "He looked a real quality keeper at Championship level and joining a Premier League club is a natural progression for him. I think he will become a top-class international keeper. "He has all the tools to make it in the Premier League, no doubt about it. It isn't a gamble by Sunderland, because he won't let them down."
If that is true and N`Gog is Bents replacement we are ****ed. Bents replacement needs to be someone like Defoe / Sturridge / Rodallega / Pav / Crouch All proven in the PL
Sunderland boss Steve Bruce says their summer transfer market campaign is well underway. Bruce is aware of considerable speculation linking the club to a whole host of talent and admits he's in thick of negotiations with a number of players and their representatives. But he won't be rushed and insists potential moves will stay under wraps until the time is right. He explained: "We've been planning and preparing for months, but the early part of pre-season is when people tend to be on holiday which slows things down. "Myself, Niall and Steve [Walton, chief executive] have been exploring every single avenue and we're getting towards putting deals in place. "I know it's frustrating for the supporters who have to wait for news, but we like to keep our powder dry and as soon as it's done, you'll hear about it. "Rumours fly everywhere and we've already been linked with something like 50 players. "But we'll go about our business as normal. The clear objective is to construct a squad which can build on what we've already achieved. I'm confident we can do that."
Personally I think it makes sense to get 1 or 2 Bosmans in - especially the keeper and Larsson, and keep the money for bigger names. From everything I've seen both the Coventry keeper and Larsson would be decent acquisitions, but I do think we need more than Ngog up front !
Berbatov to Newcastle is SkyBet's shortest odds. Not gospel I know, but I think what has happened (as with N'Zogbia and Larsson) is that journalists have noticed "Ooh Sunderland and Newcastle are quite close to each other, that means if one club wants a player, we can say the other club does too, makes sense no?"
no -out of them i'd only take sturridge and rodallaga and we've got no chance with sturridge. splash the cash and buy wellbeck. SAR WILL sell if we put in a good enough offer and he is the perfect one. young ambitious english forward who is also classsed by many as one of the 'black stars', so will keep gyan happy after mensah's void
Replace Bent who's worth 24 million and gets 20 goals a term every season with Ngog who's optimistically priced at 4 million and who gets 2 goals a season. I don't know what type of strict business plan Short is sticking to but if he thinks thats good business I'm surprised he's not broke. That article has to be utter sh**e. It must be. If its true we're only going one way and thats down! We're missing the boat here on all sorts of players and if Zog joins Ba at the mags having both been our targets I'll be so pissed off that because of messing about our dirty cousins up othe road are gaining an advantage.
N'Gog as a replacement is like saying the owners of Red Rum are replacing him with Dolly from blackpool beach in the next Grand National. He isnt even a replacement for Martyn Waghorn IMO. Worst decisions since Lincon said he just fancied a quiet night at the theatre. Bruce would be signing the shortest suicide note in football history if true, which is why I cannot believe is true. As for Larsson, yess great news if true of course and fair play to Bruce for getting his man. Will only get truly excitedwhen Jeff Brown says its so on Look North.
Rodallega & Welbeck to fight it out with Gyan for £30m and N'Gog & Won as back up for less than £5m. Larsson, Upson and Westwood for nowt. Gibson for £3m (I dont think O Shea or Brown will be joining him). Maybe a left back if one available so Bardo can go back to his strongest side. N'Zogbia the marquee signing (marquee for us that is) for £12m and were readty to roll.
Lets be fair lads these players are ****ing ****e haha, the harsh reality has set in about next season already
Frankly, I like the sound of a business plan. We nearly saw the club go down the pan a few years back and it cost a lot of people on the non-football side of things their jobs. Short has invested over £100M in Sunderland AFC and some of it has come back in the Bent/Henderson money and the savings from trimming down the squad. He's now being canny with his cash and I for one don't blame him. It doesn't necessarily mean he won't spend, but it does mean he'll spend very carefully and will want new signings justified. Liverpool sold Torres for £50M, but they've blown more than that on Carroll and Henderson and I'm not sure that's good business. Don't want to see us going chequebook crazy just because we have a few bob.
imo the budget related stuff is just to try and minimalize the 'sunderland have 24 for bent 16 for hendo, ooo 40 mil lets bump our prices up' by intimating its not all avail for replacements means people like harry redknap cant fleece us for extra coinage imo
