Steve Bruce claims no player whose name has an initial N followed by an apostophe will be signed. They all want salaries that would break our sensible limits. Today Thursday 30 June 2011 11:10 SUNDERLAND have cooled their interest in Liverpool striker David Ngog after snapping up England Under-21 star Connor Wickham. But they look set to complete a whirlwind 24 hours in the transfer market today with the signings of Craig Gardner and Ji Dong-won. With the unveiling of Ipswich starlet Wickham yesterday, it will mean the Black Cats have made three signings in the space of a day, and with Keiren Westwood and Seb Larssonâs moves set to be officially rubber-stamped by the club tomorrow, five signings in 72 hours. Gardnerâs signing has happened relatively smoothly, while Jiâs was complicated by the pursuit of a work permit for the South Korean. But manager Steve Bruce will be delighted to have all five available to be part of pre-season preparations. However, Ngog will not be one of those players on Wearside when training begins next week. The French forward had been a target for the Black Cats at the start of the close season when a move to Sunderland would have been smoothed by Jordan Hendersonâs £19.25m switch to the Reds. Despite a £3m fee being agreed between the two clubs, the deal was not pushed through because the playerâs representatives wanted to take things at a slower pace. And now Ngog has missed out on the chance to kick-start his stalling career at the Stadium of Light, with the arrival of Wickhamâ and now Dong-won â changing the picture at Sunderland. Both new signings offer the height which Ngog would have brought to the front-line, and with Stephane Sessegnon and fellow midfielder Kieran Richardson having proved last season they can do a job up front, the need for Ngog has gone. Bruce has still not given up hope that Danny Welbeck could be returning to the Stadium of Light for a second season on loan, but Sunderland will have to wait until Sir Alex Ferguson assesses his options up front after a summer rebuilding at Old Trafford.
No great loss, clearly wanted far too much money. Average footballers demanding crazy weekly wages seems to be the norm these days. At his age I thought he'd jump at the chance of 1st team football to try and establish himself in the prem. Obviously not! Au revoir!
As I don't rate N'Gog at all, I'm pleased. He was too easily bullied off the ball as well. I can't see Wickham being bullied off the ball at all.
Yes I do know and I am absolutley delighted. This player is ****e and so arrogant if all he thinks about is a huge pay increase, for basically sitting on his arse at Liverpool. If he had scored a hatful of goals and showed anything I'd be disappointed but we have been very fortunate in missing out on this lad We'll just take the 20m cash Kenny thanks. You can keep the donkey.
yeah we could have have had a forward line of Donkey Kong Oh sorry was'nt that a comp game I meant Donkey and Dong Not the DD i was looking for
As I posted last week folks, I can confirm (got a contact at LFC) that Ngog was looking for a raise on his salary from the 18,000 a week he was earning at LFC to a demand of 40,000 a week he wanted from Sunderland...Cheeky bugger !