http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/sport/su...-sunderland-s-craig-gordon-79310-28782129/don
Wenger's keeps tabs on Sunderland's Craig Gordon
May 29 2011 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun
ARSENAL are keeping tabs on Craig Gordon after Sunderland boss Steve Bruce admitted he is stalling over contract negotiations with the £9m Scotland keeper.
Gordon is about to enter the final 12 months of his current five-year deal, but Bruce has told him to forget about contract talks until he has made a full recovery from knee surgery.
âCraig has to look after himself but, first and foremost, I have to look after the club â thatâs my job,â said Bruce.
âI donât think I am in a position now, even with his contract running down, to be offering someone who has a serious injury a new deal.
âI know itâs a horrible situation, but I donât think we can be going into negotiations yet.
âThe big thing for Craig is to get himself fit again. Once he gets himself fit and back out on the training ground, then weâll sit down and have a conversation and it will go from there.â
Sunderlandâs stance has alerted Arsenal, who have a long-standing interest in Gordon and are looking to bring in an established first-choice keeper after another season of costly goalkeeping calamities from Manuel Almunia and youngster Wojciech Szczesny.
An injury crisis also forced Arsene Wenger into asking former Gunner Jens Lehmann to come out of retirement at the age of 41 and sign a short-term deal.
Wenger is expected to spend this summer to strengthen his squad after their trophy drought continued for a sixth year, and a goalkeeper will rank high on his shopping list.
The danger of delaying contract talks, from Sunderlandâs point of view, is that Gordon could decide to let his current deal run down and leave for nothing on a Bosman at the end of next season.
But Bruceâs caution is understandable as, despite being Sunderlandâs first-choice keeper, a miserable run of injuries in the last three seasons means Gordon has yet to play 100 games in all competitions for the club.
After playing in 34 out of 38 Premier League games in a largely injury-free first campaign following his move from Hearts, ankle and knee problems restricted him to just 12 league appearances in 2008-09, a broken arm meant he missed almost a third of the 2009-10 season and then a recurrence of that arm break and later his knee injury meant he played only 15 league games last season.
Bruce is also looking to sign Coventryâs out-of-contract keeper Keiren Westwood this summer as back-up for Belgium international Simon Mignolet, who showed great potential in his first season on Wearside.
Wenger's keeps tabs on Sunderland's Craig Gordon
May 29 2011 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun
ARSENAL are keeping tabs on Craig Gordon after Sunderland boss Steve Bruce admitted he is stalling over contract negotiations with the £9m Scotland keeper.
Gordon is about to enter the final 12 months of his current five-year deal, but Bruce has told him to forget about contract talks until he has made a full recovery from knee surgery.
âCraig has to look after himself but, first and foremost, I have to look after the club â thatâs my job,â said Bruce.
âI donât think I am in a position now, even with his contract running down, to be offering someone who has a serious injury a new deal.
âI know itâs a horrible situation, but I donât think we can be going into negotiations yet.
âThe big thing for Craig is to get himself fit again. Once he gets himself fit and back out on the training ground, then weâll sit down and have a conversation and it will go from there.â
Sunderlandâs stance has alerted Arsenal, who have a long-standing interest in Gordon and are looking to bring in an established first-choice keeper after another season of costly goalkeeping calamities from Manuel Almunia and youngster Wojciech Szczesny.
An injury crisis also forced Arsene Wenger into asking former Gunner Jens Lehmann to come out of retirement at the age of 41 and sign a short-term deal.
Wenger is expected to spend this summer to strengthen his squad after their trophy drought continued for a sixth year, and a goalkeeper will rank high on his shopping list.
The danger of delaying contract talks, from Sunderlandâs point of view, is that Gordon could decide to let his current deal run down and leave for nothing on a Bosman at the end of next season.
But Bruceâs caution is understandable as, despite being Sunderlandâs first-choice keeper, a miserable run of injuries in the last three seasons means Gordon has yet to play 100 games in all competitions for the club.
After playing in 34 out of 38 Premier League games in a largely injury-free first campaign following his move from Hearts, ankle and knee problems restricted him to just 12 league appearances in 2008-09, a broken arm meant he missed almost a third of the 2009-10 season and then a recurrence of that arm break and later his knee injury meant he played only 15 league games last season.
Bruce is also looking to sign Coventryâs out-of-contract keeper Keiren Westwood this summer as back-up for Belgium international Simon Mignolet, who showed great potential in his first season on Wearside.
