PDC to listen to offers for Sess?

Lets see what happens it is mostly paper talk and speculation atm.
It would seem that Mig does want away..I personally do not mind if Graham leaves, and I would hang onto Sess. But if Sess or his family/manager have started whinging again, call his bluff and see who comes in for him, the goals he misses far outstrip the goals he scores.

Frankly the team was awful last season and does need a massive overhaul, but then it needs time to bed down..and with the difficult home fixtures coming up..we are in for an interesting time.

 

I am not worried at all. If we persist with the current squad were going to get relegated.

Westwood, JOS, Gardner, Johnson and Fletcher give us a spine of ELP experience. Even the likes of Colback and Cuellar are experienced EPL players.

Its time for a change and no player can think their place is secure. Its a good thing because no player can use "player power" against the manager its the PDC way or the highway. The PDC way is fit diciplined players who play creative football.

Keane had to sign lots of players to get us into the EPL and then another load to keep us there.

Its a gamble no doubt but I would rather gamble than carry on bumping along afraid of relegation every season.

 

Can't remember, I had them when I was about 13, because then they were the ****ing bees knees.

 

The club needs to come out and actually back some players, the perception we are putting out at the minute is that everyone can **** off and its not a good message to put out.

It would be great if PDC came out and backed Sess to the hilt and said hes a major part of next season.

We need to start a "Stay Sess" campaign if the club continue to stay silent amid all of these rumors.

If the little Benin bastard is sold we are simply another Stoke/West Ham (no offence), cant believe people are happy for him to be sold as his replacement will be nowhere near as good.

 

If we do bring in 10 new faces (all foreign by the looks of it too) by the time we play Fulham on August 17th, it will either be a masterstoke of epic proportions, or else the biggest gamble ever made at the club in its history.

I dont recall ANY club that totally overhauled its playing staff inside 3 months of a close season, as we seem hell bent on doing and it actually working out for the better?

If Sess, Mig, Bardo, Catts, Vaughan and Gardener go and Graham, Wickham and McClean possibly as well, it will mean a team with maybe only AJ, JOS, Alfie and Fletcher from last year. The other 7 new faces will need to be of sufficient ability and up to speed to hit the ground running or else we will be up to our elbows in alligator **** by November.

This is a gamble without doubt but for all our sakes its one I hope Short, PDC and the new backroom team have carefully thought through and contemplated before embarking on.

We could be either brilliant or a total embarassment and as a cynical seen it all before and annually let down SAFC fan of some near 40 seasons, I wish desperately for the former but absolutely fear the latter will be more likely.

 

We finished below both of them last season so we are not even that good now.

 

http://metro.co.uk/2013/04/21/sunde...fluence-of-little-stephane-sessegnon-3660799/

He's backed him the past, I've seen no evidence to say he's changed his mind. It would be media suicide to come out and say Sess is a big part of next season plans, when who stays and who goes is out of his jurisdiction. It would be like volunteering to be the fall guy.

 

Haha I mean the style of football they play. I like the 4-4-1-1 we play and I think its a formation we should stick with given the right players whereas your Stokes/West ham portray the old skool 4-4-2 "long ball" style.

I'm quite proud of the fact we try and get it on the deck and play with creative flair players just off the striker, just had the wrong players/manager last season.

STAY SESS, STAYYYYYY!!!!!

 

Sessegnon availability indicates change of priority at Paolo Di Canio’s Sunderland


June 25, 2013 by maxclaytonrobb

Paolo Di Canio’s Sunderland is going to look rather different to Martin O’Neill’s. Since his arrival, Di Canio has very strongly prioritised hard work, fitness, energy and passion. That doesn’t sound too different from O’Neill though right? O’Neill became unpopular because his team was playing an uninteresting, uninventive, unsubtle and ultimately, unsuccessful brand of football in which honesty and effort was put to the fore of the game plan. Nothing summed this up more than the January signing of Danny Graham for £5.5m. A hard working good professional certainly, but not the right man to add fizzle and goal power to a moribund attack. Indeed the one man in the Sunderland squad who offers a bit of something genial and different is Stephane Sessegnon, and now the Italian has made him available for transfer. Is this a surprising move? Or is it just the next step of Di Canio’s purge of the squad he inherited?

Sessegnon’s 2011/12 season saw him score eight goals and make a further 12. He was one of the under the radar stars of the season, providing sparkle and production in his role behind the central striker. Last summer he was talked about as interesting Arsenal, PSG and Marseille. But this summer he is surplus to requirements. He must have had a terrible 2012/13 season then? Well, the odd thing is, the answer to that question is yes and no.

The stats took a slight downturn; seven goals and six assists, but the perception of Sessegnon as something of a spent force came more from the fact that as Sunderland’s only creative player, when he struggled the whole team did. The burden of expectation to make things happen fell solely on him more often than not and although he wasn’t really that much worse than in 2011/12, the slight dip in his form, allied to big drops elsewhere exacerbated his apparent decline.

James McClean regressed horrendously last season, his run fast and hard and smash the ball towards the goal game was easily nullified once his debut season novelty had worn off. Adam Johnson’s one trick of cutting in from the right to try and bend in a shot resulted in some good goals and a solid nine assists but it all added in to the one dimensional play that plagued Sunderland all season. With no central midfielder capable of passing the ball, and both wingers struggling for consistent threat, the only imaginative presence was Sessegnon. It meant that for teams defending Sunderland, taking out Sessegnon as a threat meant they ran out of ideas. Short of giving it to Johnson and hoping he could do something or that when fit, Steven Fletcher kept scoring with every single shot he took, they couldn’t score goals.

Di Canio is trying to change this, but Sessegnon seems to fall foul of him mostly because of his lack of top end pace and even more because of his dubious work ethic defensively. The problem Sunderland could face though, is that their problems last season didn’t come from defensive or effort issues. They tried hard, but they didn’t have the variety and subtlety to get them out of trouble. Selling Sessegnon means that the club lose their one player capable of sparkle. Yes, he doesn’t run hard, he doesn’t press hard, but he can make something out of nothing.

The squad Sunderland are building next season are going to be modelled on the German model of pressing high, pressing constantly and breaking with speed. Clearly, there is no place for a meandering Sessegnon in that. But if Di Canio is copying Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, he needs to remember that they have the likes of Mario Gotze, Marco Reus, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Franck Ribery. Players of exceptional quality on the ball. Not just fast players and hard working players.

It seems as if Di Canio’s recruitment is swapping the strong, try hard qualities of Martin O’Neill for a team of athletic, try hard players, looking to press and squeeze at all times. But if he doesn’t add any quality and class it could be swapping one kind of inefficiency for another.

 

This is just from memory and my memory is like a sieve these days, but has sess not has his head turned the past 2 seasons (i know last season he did) and he seems to start off really slowly, then when he knows he is stuck with us (IE end of season) he picks the pace up and actually plays a bit, just to get his head turned again in the summer.

Dont get me wrong that sounds like i dont like him, I do, I just dont think he will be that much of a loss if we did cash in on him.

 

Even if it does go tits up Cest, at least we tried. If we didn't we'd get relegated next year for sure, and we'd do it without a whimper. Since we came up in 2006/07 we have payed over the odds for ****e. And thats continued to this day with the likes of DG.

Will take some time for the new lads to gel. But how long do we say that at the start of every season with British players who have played together before? It's like they have until christmas to get their **** together and remember what it is they are paid a fortune to do.

We need this, despite everyone being worried. You've got to be in it to win it, and Short is a risk taker who takes very calculated risks. I am excited, and love the unknown we are heading towards. Who can honestly say they have ever felt this before?

 

Na mate, The **** stirring lying press said he wanted to leave, when in reality he was very happy and signed a new contract. Another case of don't believe the press. Scumbags they are. I've major beef with them this season. They're hell bent on unsettling every player at sunderland this summer. Arseholes are probably doing it to get at Paolo.

 

but he was still ****e till feb?

 

So were most. I think last season showed that he needs coaches constantly on his back or he'll just drift through games.

 

direct quote from MON himself its not just the press making up ****.

 

It say's he had concerns. Speculative. Now i know where the press got the idea from now. Maybe it did turn his head but it didn't stop him signing a new contract before the window even closed.

 

Press are just speculating to get a story probably with the bastard agents trying to stir things up.

Capping the limit of money an agent can take out of a deal would be a big step forward in rationalizing the money going out of football.

 

Exactly mate, does anybody else find it strange we are "apparently" listening to offers on Sessegnon but there are no rumors about us listening to offers on Wickham or Graham who under performed so much more than Sess, its completely paper/agent started rumors to get clubs sniffing.

 

With all the in-comings at Sunderland of late it has been easy to forget that there will inevitably be some departures. With Mignolet already gone, Bardsley as good as gone and question marks over Jack Colback's future, Stephane Sessegnon also finds himself the topic of discussion but how would Sunderland fare without the popular forward?

While Sunderland and their new-look recruitment team have been seemingly hell-bent on recruiting each and every name on Di Fanti's shortlist in a whirlwind of activity which is usually reserved for a "Football Manager" pre-season, talk has also turned to who will make way.

With Phil Bardsley's Sunderland future dead and buried under a pile of fifty-pound notes and his reputation in tatters, the likes of Lee Cattermole, David Vaughan, James McClean, Danny Graham and, perhaps most interestingly, Stephane Sessegnon, may also face up to life away from Wearside courtesy of Di Canio's summer shake-up.

Transfer discussions have reached, arguably, an unprecedented level of pandemonium and even panic among fans, especially at this relatively early stage of the summer transfer window. Sure the everlasting sagas that were the Steven Fletcher and Adam Johnson deals had Sunderland fans glued to Twitter but this pre-season seems to be reaching new levels of desperation, so much so that Di Canio himself offered reassurance and called for calm.

The future of Stephane Sessegnon is undoubtedly the most discussed topic this week when it comes to player's that may pass the likes of Gino Peruzzi through the revolving door at the Stadium of Light, with many a differing opinion on the popular forward.

With a recent link to the Chinese Super League side, Tianjin, quashed it is unlikely that talk of Sessegnon leaving for pastures new will be dispelled quite so easily. You can bet your bottom dollar that the press will conjure up all kinds of "plausible" deals offering the mercurial star a return to France such are the incessant stories of an unsettled family, despite the man himself rubbishing such claims earlier this year.

Sunderland's reported interest, however fanciful it may well be at this stage, in Juventus' Emanuele Giaccherini, he himself a fantastic, creative, attacking midfielder/forward have only served to add fuel to this particular fire.

For many Sunderland fans the very thought of losing Sessegnon is one that they will find hard to stomach. It is no secret that Sunderland's problems of late have stemmed from a lack of creativity and guile in the final third, so news that the club may well be ready to listen to offers for the popular playmaker will no doubt upset some sections of the crowd.

On one hand this is perfectly understandable.

Some of the things that I have seen this lad do with the ball at his feet have been simply staggering and at times have been worth the price of admission alone. Indeed, in the final third of last season, Sessegnon was one of the players to benefit the most (along with Adam Johnson) following Di Canio's arrival and his upturn in form was key to Sunderland's success during that time. Certainly the Benin-wizard was instrumental in the side's back-to-back wins over Newcastle and Everton, finding the back of the net in both fixtures.

However for each one of those stunning games another two, three, possibly even four will pass by before we see such another influential performance.

For all Sessegnon's talent, of which there is an unquestionable abundance, he has frustratingly remained somewhat of an enigma. Since joining Sunderland from PSG in January of 2011 both Steve Bruce and Martin O'Neill struggled to identify a permanent slot in their respective lineups to best utilise the gifted little fella. Of course arguments could be made for the varying reasons behind that.

However the simple, unwelcome truth is that Sessegnon is purely too inconsistent to fit in with the demands Di Canio makes on his side, a belief which was hinted at in the bosses' comments following the wins over Newcastle and Everton:

"Stephane is a talent, a great player. If Stephane works as he's done in the last two games, he's a dangerous opponent but I can tell you, from the games I watched on television prior to signing my contract here, Stephane did not give his best.

"For me, your best is when you are playing with your brain and Stephane is now playing with his brain. But when I watched the Manchester United game on television Stephane only played when he had the ball or was in a position to ask for it."
Di Canio expects, if not demands, his players stick to their defensive duties, regardless of their position on the field. Each and every player has a job do to in this regard. Pressing high up the field and constantly working to close down the opposition across the field, looking to win back possession before springing a swift counter attack. With this in mind a sound defensive work ethic is not what you would instantly attribute to the enigmatic Sessegnon.

This is when Sessegnon's position in the side looks most in doubt. With the addition of Jozy Altidore to the side and Di Canio's desire to add more strikers to his squad it is apparent that Sessegnon is not in the frame for a starting position alongside Steven Fletcher. He also does not fit Di Canio's template for the centre of midfield, a position where the Italian looks committed to filling with more of a physical presence, something the diminutive Sessegnon undoubtedly does not have in his locker. This therefore also makes a position behind the forward line, where Sess would undoubtedly fit, an unlikely tactic for the Italian to deploy.

That consequently leaves only a position in the wide areas. Again, an area of the field it is hard to see Sessegnon filling. The roaming playmaker is not known for his desire to track back or for a sound defensive work ethic.

Of course Sessegnon would make a fantastic impact substitute but it is unlikely that this is a scenario that will sit well with the player himself.

The very transfer model that Sunderland are looking to employ by its design means that Sunderland fans may very well need to become accustomed to players coming and going. Di Fanti's success at Udinese has been well documented and discussed since his appointment on Wearside, with Alexis Sanchez heralded as his greatest success to date, having signed the talented forward as a seventeen year old for the Blaconeri before the talented Chilean made his €26m+ move to Barcelona a number of years later.

So while it may be easy to look upon Sessegnon's position with Sunderland with rose-tinted glasses and fawn over memories of his stunning goals and graceful footwork it is important to keep in mind the bigger picture - that he may well be moved on and indeed the team itself will move on too.

Sunderland have made incredible strides already this summer simply in the names that our new scouting network have brought to the clubs attention. Of course being linked with players of the calibre of Giaccherini is all well and good and it is the execution of the transfer that is most important, it is clear that the very dynamic and targets of the club have changed. If, and of course it is still a big if at this stage, Ellis Short and the rest of his team can pull off some of the transfers that are being muted then a decision to let Sessegnon move on will be the last thought on the fans' minds.

http://www.rokerreport.com/2013/7/11/4511166/stephane-sessegnon-should-he-stay-or-should-he-go