Summer window

Prepare the cans - Sunderland must go all out to bring Yann M’Vila home
The French midfielder has been linked with a sensational return to the Stadium of Light in recent days.

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By Jason Jones
Published 16th Oct 2023, 17:00 BST

Yann M’Vila is a 33-year-old free agent who has not kicked a football since May, who has not played in England since before the Brexit referendum, and who in no way, shape, or form fits Sunderland’s current recruitment model. Evocations of his majesty are, at least in part, clouded by the rose-tinted hues of nostalgia, and any expectation that he could return to Wearside and replicate the kind of form that made him such a beloved, albeit temporary, adoptive Mackem is, in diplomatic terms, wildly optimistic. Taking all of that into account, yes, of course I want Sunderland to re-sign him. Trying to determine the worst decision made during the slow unravelling that culminated in the Black Cats suffering successive relegations and staggering through the doldrums of League One - a penniless aristocrat exiled to the gutter - is not an easy thing to do. It’s a little like picking the most damaging Prime Minister of the past decade, or the most excrutiating episode of James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke; there are plenty to choose from, and they’re all crap. But certainly, when it comes to Sunderland’s various howlers, few can compare with the voluntary snubbing of a permanent deal for M’Vila in favour of a club record swoop for Didier Ndong. In retrospect, that’s like being offered a taster menu from a Michelin star chef, and instead requesting that somebody kick you in the nether regions.

Why Sunderland opted against signing the Frenchman seven years ago remains something of an aching mystery; by all accounts, the player was keen, and if you need concrete evidence of just how eager supporters were, look no further than the rabid response to RMC Sport’s report that the Black Cats, alongside West Brom and Atletico Madrid, have enquired about his availability following a departure from Olympiacos earlier this summer. It is testament to M’Vila’s impact in the North East that, after just a single season on loan there, he is still so fervently lusted over the best part of a decade later.

Of course, if recent history has taught us anything, it’s that homecomings are something to be wary of. Who could forget Jermain Defoe’s infamous last dance, for instance - less Torville and Dean’s Bolero, more Cha Cha Slide at a nursing home disco? Sunderland fans were expecting Michael Jordan at the Chicago Bulls, and instead were left cradling Michael Jordan at the Scottsdale Scorpions. But despite the foreboding nature of past experiements, and the facetiousness with which I sauntered into this article, there is genuinely a strong argument to be made for M’Vila representing a canny acquisition. This is a player who boasts 22 caps for France and who, just last season, was playing in the Europa League. He might not be the irresistible force he was for large swathes of his previous loan stint, but then again, he doesn’t have to be. He just needs to be good enough for the Championship. And then there is the question of his age. At 33, M’Vila would be at least a decade older than the vast majority of Sunderland’s freakishly young squad. Tony Mowbray’s is the only side in the second tier who arrive at away matches looking like they’ve just turned up to compete in a regional Spelling Bee. In that respect, M’Vila is by no means a typical Sunderland signing. But it is sensible - wise, even - to temper such precocious youth with a dash of experience here and there. The ballast provided by the likes of Luke O’Nien and Cory Evans, when fit, has been as significant in the Black Cats’ recent ascension as the kindergarten wizardry of Jack Clarke, Trai Hume, Dan Neil, et al. M’Vila, were he to join, would be another greying feather in the Mackem’s figurative cap.

But ultimately, that uncertainty underpins this entire discussion. When considering the prospect of M’Vila returning to Sunderland, we are still very much traipsing through the dank swamps of ‘if’ rather than gazing out over the sunlit expanses of ‘when’. This is by no means a guaranteed happening. Unfortunately. After all, they say it is the hope that kills you.

If, by some minor miracle, Kristjaan Speakman were able to lure M’Vila back to the Stadium of Light in the coming weeks and months, however, I think it would be the skull-splitting intensity of the celebratory hungover, rather than the weight of anticipation, that actually finished me off. Yann might be coming back and he might not. I’ll get the cans in the fridge, just in case...

 

Not signing M’Vila was the biggest mistake Moyes made, and there were some absolute whoppers to compare with.

But we don’t need him now, that ship has sailed.

 

To be fair - at the time M'Vila had less than 6 months left on his contract and Kazan wanted £9m for him.

I know we went and spunked £13m on Ndong (that despite his protests was absolutely an Allardyce signing) but the club and Moyes would have been castigated for spending that much on a player available on a free in January

Additionally, even with M'Vila we would have been ****e because Dr.Gloom was in charge and sucking the oxygen out of the room every day at the AOL

 

We did sign him on a bosman, which then got cancelled once the transfer window shut.

 

I'm not convinced it was Moyes' **** up, I'm sure he had a part but not convinced he was purely to blame. It seemed to me like the club (meaning someone high up) thought they could get him in January for free as the lad wanted to come back, so the club thought we can spend that few million elsewhere so let's wait until January (they probably thought we usually ****e until about then and still stop up).

The not paying a fee and waiting a few months sounded good in theory and if we were a steady mid-table or above team it would have probably worked out. But instead we were a absolute mess sleep walking no sorry make that running towards relegation and the player thought **** that.

Iirc at the time it was said by the club he has signed something to bring him in when his contract ended in January but by then he was telling the club he didn't want to join so they forgot about it?

I ****ing hate Moyes but not sure he did much more than agree with the course of action on this one!

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...2016/dec/07/sunderland-yann-mvila-rubin-kazan

 

https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=fbc1...bmRlcmxhbmQtc2h1bi12ZXJ5LXZlcnktYmFkbHk&ntb=1

 

100% the right deal for footballing reasons was to not sign N'Dong and get M'Villa instead. I don't agree with the decision but I can understand why the club did what they did! They though they would get him for free in January so why pay, obviously with hindsight if it falling through and us getting relegated they would have probably coughed up the money!

 

To be fair, the writing was on the wall even if we had signed M’vila instead of N’dong in the summer window.

It brings to mind some what ifs for that grim season. Sell Kone, definitely don’t buy Djilibodji, nor Gibson, Love, Pienarr, Lescott… Dear me that was a lot of bad business. There’s some decent cash that could have been spent infinitely better. Plus Big Sam managed to keep Kirchhoff fit - he was a big miss.

 

There were two travesties in that window, the first as you rightly point out, not signing M'Vila. And the 2nd signing N'Dong!!!!!!

 

Think I may have had too much to drink
I read the first line as...
There were two transvestites...

 

Dear God...thats a depressing list

 

…and the rest!

 

Unfortunately for us, Moyes went shopping in the ex-Everton and random foreigners aisles whilst ignoring the spine of the team that had shown mid-table form over the last third of the previous season.

 

No defending the decision to wait for January to sign M'Vila. We'd agreed a price before loaning him and reneged on the deal. Might have made some sense financially, but what a twattish way to act.

As for whether it was Moyes' decision, he will have had some input, but unlikely a big one. Regardless, he sanctioned it, plus the purchase of the ****e (ndong, djillycockhead, pienaar, klingon face etc al), the sale of Kaboul and the horrific mismanagement of Kirchoff which effectively ended his career - all within a couple of months. With that in mind I'll gladly blame him for the M'Vila **** up as well.

Ginger mood vampire. Bad aids would be too good for him.

 

January window thread can’t be far off

 

I despise him

 

Me too..........and I'm related to him

 

What relation to him are you, could you get to a family gathering and give him some hand written messages of "congratulations" for the job he did here?

 

It's a very distant and tenuous relation - his wife is my auntie's cousin, but she's only my aunt through marriage so not a blood relation.

They're all a bunch of dour Glaswegians so I doubt they ever choose to socialise and attempt to be happy