He didnât so much keep his cards close to his chest; rather they were still in the packet, as he remained tight-lipped regarding whether any transfers were near to being completed. This should not have come as a surprise. The Northern Irishman once told a group of reporters, at the beginning of his time at Celtic, that they could link him with any player in the world, and it wouldnât bother him the slightest. Because even if a signing story was bang-on and the player in question had actually been sitting in OâNeillâs office, the Northern Irishman would not have said a word about it. Thatâs just not his style. So while fans are desperate to hear the managerâs thoughts on who will be joining the club, that is something they wonât get from him until everything is signed, sealed and delivered. However, at least OâNeill spoke at some length about the type of football he wants to see Sunderland play this season, which will be a high-tempo pressing game when they donât have the ball, and a slick passing style when they have possession. So far, so encouraging. But, Sunderland supporters would have started to grow slightly uneasy about the lack of announcements coming from the Stadium of Light regarding transfers, of which they hoped would be many. OâNeill admitted yesterday âthe supporters have been very generous to me and have given me timeâ and they will continue to do so because they trust their manager knows what heâs doing. His record rather demands that the clubâs followers do back whatever decision he makes this summer ahead of next season. OâNeill is now back at work and the players will return in the first week of July to begin their pre-season training. Whether any new faces will be at the training ground on that first day remains to be seen, however, what will definitely be introduced to the existing squad is a style of football that wasnât seen under Steve Bruce, certainly in the final months of his reign. OâNeill said: â(The fans) are passionate, they want to see the team do well and compete. They want to see the players closing players down, hunting them and gaining the ball. âDeep down, thatâs what we all want to see â some really decent football, players parading their skills, enjoying it and giving them something to cheer.â To play better football, Sunderland need to sign a certain style of player, while keeping a hold of Stephane Sessegnon who was by some distance the teamâs star performer last time. Arsenal being one of many clubs linked with the playmaker. That Sunderland will be well organised this upcoming season is unquestionable, but they need to score more goals, something OâNeill obviously doesnât need to be told. He spoke about it enough at the end of the last campaign. The deal to bring Steven Fletcher to Wearside is, the Journal understands, 75 per cent done and while he wonât be a name to get the fans dizzy with excitement, the striker has still scored 36 Premier League goals for two poor sides, Burnley and Wolves, over three seasons. OâNeill does not have a huge budget to work with and that is why he has pinpointed the £10m-rated Scot as one of his two goalscorers he wants to sign. In these days of hugely inflated transfer fees for average players, he would have to go nearer the £20million mark to lure someone with a better record to the Stadium of Light. It will be interesting to see whether his interest in Aiden McGeady has cooled given the wingerâs poor European Championship, although OâNeill knows that the Spartak Moscow player is miles better than he showed for the Republic of Ireland during their three defeats. Free transfers Carlos Cueller, Keith Andrews and Louis Saha are all a possibility and none really represent a huge risk, as long as the club accepts that Saha is never going to play 40 games in one season. Sunderland head off to South Korea too play in the Peace Cup tournament in the second week of July and the manager would hope to have at least two new signings on the plane. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen, however, the Black Cats fans will be happy and to hear their manager is back at work having lost none of the enthusiasm for the job he showed since walking into the club last December. OâNeill said: âWe will all come back refreshed and ready for pre-season. Iâm looking forward to it and Iâm hoping we can do something. âI think the supporters have got a fair idea of what we need to try (to do) and build the team.â
Fletcher would be okay not sure he would get us more than 10 goals a season though which is what we need. Another player from a relegated team who were relegated because they didn't score enough goals, a squad player at best.
Disagree really - I think he will score more than Bendy did for us last season and as such would represent a step forward. The article talks about needing to spend £20m+ to get somebody with a better return, so I think he is a good bet. I accept that there are always players like Cisse around in forgeign leagues who can bang them in for fun, but for every Cisse there is an Alfonso Alves - Fletcher for me is a low risk signing who is likely to get goals.
I could have scored more than Bendtner last season mate, Fletcher as said would be okay he is not what we need though. Not sure where this 20mil has come from maybe the journo has an insider at the club and, seem to remember Wolves wanting 14mil (or around that mark) for him so not much of a step forward really and not worth 14mil of anybodies money. Just looked at his stats 10 goals in 2010/11 and 12 last season not ideal would rather spend the full 20mil on a good striker, I'm sure poolie knows a few who would fit the bill.
I said it on a previous thread about Fletcher but I'm sure he scored 9 headers last year. That's more than Bendtner all season (correct me if I'm wrong). I think we need this kind of striker who's going to get on the end of Jimmy Mc and Seb's crosses, because we didn't have anyone last year because Bendtner was always on the wing!!
Would be a good signing for you guys, 12 goals a season for teams battling against relegation or getting relegated is no mean feet, was a time last season he seemed to be the only player scoring any goals for Wolves.
Fletcher had the best conversion rate I am lead to believe for the season just gone and I think he would be a good signing for us. I personally think we will go with 1 upfront and Sess roaming around just behind and for me Fletcher is the ideal man to play that role upfront. I have said before and will say again we need 3 strikers and I do hope the link with Saha does come off, a player like Saha would get us 7 or 8 goals and on a year or two year contract he would be a good signing IMO As for a 3rd either Yilmaz who has a great record in Turkey who would be a risk but a risk worth taking or the player MoN went to watch in John Guidetti who would possibly come on loan If we got Fletcher, Saha and Guidetti (on loan) I would be very happy we would have goals in our side, I also wouldn't be surprised that by Christmas Guidetti is our first choice striker, the lad looks a really good player, have to get them of course but would be well happy with them. Ji and especially Wickham need to go out on loan to get regular game time.
At last. a few positive comments regarding the potential signing of Steven Fletcher. I believe he is an ideal forward to have, he works hard, puts his body on the line and scores goals. Comparing him with Bendtner and even Gyan, and we will have a forward that will give 100% each week for the club. If we are lucky enough to get him to play for us this season, and I emphasise 'lucky', then getting Saha as a back up will be a decent start for us. Lets be realistic, we are not going to get a top striker that will score 20+ goals a season. We are not a big name club, not in Europe and our location in the North East of England can't be too attractive for some of these star players. Lets stop deluding ourselves that we can attract some big names, and start being positive and excited about the likes of Fletcher and even Saha. Not too keen on loan players, eg Guidetti, as with Welbeck we will lose them eventually, potentially at the expense of our younger strikers currently at the club. That is all.
Don't think loan deals are to bad if they improve us mate Guidetti looks a good player and will never get a look in with the strikers City have, if he came here and done a Welbeck I would be very happy, we would probably have a good chance of signing him at the end of the season as for our young players in Ji and Wickham, they aint ready and need to be playing week in week out which aint going to happen at our club.
Fair call poolie, I guess thats all we can hope for nowadays. We have had a few decent loan players in the past, Welbeck and Jonny Evans come to mind recently. The only negative is that they are only a short term fix, once they show signs of improvement they are recalled back to the parent club the next season and we are back where we started. Obviously, if they improve us then thats great also, but I feel that we need to build for the future with experienced and proven premiership players, eg Holt, Fletcher, Moses, etc.. Hope we get a decent left back also. It's still early days and Euro 2012 is still the number one concern, but I just get a bit annoyed with some of our fans bagging decent players that are linked with us. Its just the delusion of these fans that give me the impression that they are suggesting we sign a $30M(Aussie dollars lol) player or two. In reality we cannot attract these types of players, the reasons I mentioned earlier. Hoping for another season where safety is guaranteed with about 5 or more games still to play.
who does this remind you of guys? Darren Bent Now, im not saying Fletcher and Bent are similar in anyway but we need a striker who can perform even when the team isn't.
Bent is a good player his problem is his lack of loyality, lets face it you got 1 and a half very good years out of Bent then he was a [NSFW]twat.[/NSFW]
