Sunderland are prepared to offload frontmen Danny Graham and Ignacio Scocco in a bid to finance a £10m move for Liverpool's Fabio Borini. The Black Cats are keen to bring Borini back to the Stadium of Light after he excelled while on loan last season, scoring 10 goals in all competitions and becoming a firm crowd favourite. At the end of the season, the Italian returned to Merseyside but his future at Anfield is unclear. He was only a fringe figure in his first season at Liverpool before spending last season with Sunderland. With Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge established as the Reds’ first-choice strikers – and with the club expected to announce the £4m signing of Rickie Lambert from Southampton today – Borini would appear to have been pushed even further down the pecking order. That could be the catalyst for his exit this summer and, while a possible move to his native Italy has been mentioned, Sunderland will hope Borini’s successful season in the North East has given them a realistic chance of signing the 23-year-old. Borini was Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers’ first signing and he will want to recoup as much of the £12m he paid Parma for the striker’s services as possible. Sunderland would need to sell some of the players Poyet has deemed surplus to requirements. One of those is Graham, who has been a major flop since he joined from Swansea in a £5m deal from Swansea City in January last year, when Martin O’Neill was in charge. Two of Graham’s former clubs – Middlesbrough, where he spent the second half of last season on loan, and Watford - have shown interest in signing him and Sunderland will jump at the chance to get him off their wage bill. They could also look to sell Argentina international Nacho Scocco, who has hardly played since his £4m arrival four months ago. Scocco has been linked with a return to his homeland, with River Plate, Boca Juniors and Newell’s Old Boys all reportedly eyeing the 29-year-old. Poyet still has faith his January buy will come good once he has had a full pre-season programme in England. However, if the only way he could afford to bring in Borini was to sacrifice Scocco he would almost certainly be willing to make the trade. Meanwhile, goalkeeper Jordan Pickford has signed a new four-year contract with the Black Cats. The highly-rated 20-year-old, who spent spells on loan at Burton Albion and Carlisle last season, had only one month to run on his existing deal.
I don't get this. Scocco, was supposed to be a good player, now looking to offload him, without being given a chance.
Well if can't settle on about 20k a week, why did he agree to sign for us. ....Something not right here. He needs another season to be judged, surely to God !!
Could be something as simple as home-sickness. Either that or GP has realised he made a mistake and wants shot of quickly.
Maybe mate, maybe. Sad to use Altidore as an example, but he was given a chance, after chance. Maybe he just doesn't like England.
This could be a simple question of economics. We may well be lining up another striker as well as Borini. If that's the case we'd have Scocco, Fletcher, Borini +1, Altidore & Wickham plus Whatmore. I suspect there'll be a couple out and only one + Borini in.
In which case Smug, I'd keep Fletcher for one more season to see if his injury was his problem, and let Scocco, Graham and Altidore go maybe !
I'd def keep fletch tbh. Full pre season for scocco and graham/altidore to go for borini, I know Jozy helped out with assists but with Gomez and possibly Miutch and much more arriving we'll have that covered!
Not too bothered if he is let go SO LONG as it is to make way for a PREMANENT signing. You don't miss what you never had, and we have never had him really because of the settling in period. Put it this way, if he was really good enough, this would even be up for discussion,
Dont reckon Scocco will be shifted on, he came. Over unfit and without a good preseason under his belt. Give him time to get settled, a preseason with the lads, and then see how he goes. You can see he's got talent, just need to give him a chance. Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk
