No idea what he's like. but great pedigree could just be that bit of physicality we are missing in the middle. Played with Alese in a very good West Ham u23 team. Hope he was here yesterday watching those kids ping the ball around for fun. Crazy how far we have come. Its only a year this weekend we were getting beat 6-0 off Bolton. Looks like we have dusted down Mr Quinns magic carpet.
EKWAH ARRIVES Pierre Ekwah is Sunderland's first arrival of January, signing a four-an-a-half year deal on Wearside from West Ham. The French midfielder is 21 years old and spent three years at the renowned INF Clairefontaine national academy, whose graduates include FIFA World Cup winners Thierry Henry, Blaise Matuidi, Olivier Giroud and Kylian Mbappé. More recently though he was a youth player at the London Stadium, and has scored nine goals and assisted three times in 39 Under-21 appearances for the Hammers. His time at West Ham overlapped with Aji Alese, who will be a familiar face for Ekwah on Wearside now. A France Under-20 international, Ekwah will wear the number 39 shirt and is expected to be available for Sunderland's FA Cup trip to Fulham on Saturday. Ekwah said: “The history and vision of the Club really attracted me and I’m delighted to be here. I see myself as a number eight who can handle the ball well, but I can also do the defensive side of the game. It’s great to see the Club trusting young players and that’s something that really appealed to me – it seems a great environment for me to develop as both a person and a player, and I can’t wait to get started.” Tony Mowbray added: “We are delighted to get the deal done and welcome Pierre to Sunderland. He is a player we have been monitoring for some time, and we believe he will add something different to the dynamic of our midfield. Having met him, he has a brilliant personality – he wants to get better and show he can play first-team football. He brings a level of physicality and we’re really looking forward to working with him.”
Very true mate. All those bloody wasted years of the club going backwards Buying past their sell buy date players Then being disemboweled by Donald and co. Just loving whats happening at the minute.
Simms/Geldhart, lihadji and a defender? If lihadji was ever coming seems to have gone very quiet on him
Darron Gibson was a disaster. I did think he was a playet that should have made more of his talent. Ferguson kept him at utd for a long time and he played in some big games there. We nearly signed him when Bruce was in charge, might have been a better outcome had he signed then.
Not sure if someone’s already posted but he mentioned being more of an 8 in his interview, we’re already stacked with 8’s so no idea where he’ll fit in if it’s not cover for Evans! Michut and Ba both already too good to be sitting on the bench IMO. Guess we’ll sharp find out, looks a player mind.
playing with two number 8s works well, if both are positionally sound and know when to cover the other one
100%, but I assumed that’s where Michut or Ba would come in alongside Neil. Haven’t really made a bad signing yet so I trust the process just thought he was more of a 6!
My dad will verify I've named checked Ethuhu many times since the start of the season as the 'type' of player we need haha
gotta say I’m still needing convincing on Michut at £5m. That’s not at all saying it’s a no from me. Just that I don’t think it’s certain he’s here next year
Unfortunately needs game time and isn’t getting it. Diallo was awful at Rangers because they played him off the bench or gave him one start and it didn’t work so dropped him the next game. Players need time to find their form it’s rare someone can come on for 20 minutes here or there and hugely impress people. I like him I just hope we give him the game time, I can see him going elsewhere to play regularly and us having egg on our face on this one. Wouldn’t mind dropping Clarke and shifting Diallo out wide with Michut in the 10 role for a few games to see how they do.
