Former Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has accused his former club of 'mischief' on deadline day, designed to deliberately prevent Hull City from strengthening their squad.
Bruce claims he was in for Blackpool winger Tom Ince, but was unable to move for him until Sunderland sanctioned Danny Graham's loan deal to Middlesbrough which was required to free up room for another domestic loan in the Tigers' squad.
He told the Hull Daily Mail:
Well, we couldn't loan [Ince], that's the thing.
Unless something happened earlier, we might have been in the ball park. I couldn't take that risk for Incey himself.
We always knew it was a loan deal. Crystal Palace got through it by buying Jason Puncheon. We didn't really have any possibility. Danny Graham didn't go through until 10.55pm."
I'm sure there was ['mischief at work'].
My heart bleeds, it really does. May be Bruce shouldn't have loaned Graham in the first place? I fail to see what favour Sunderland owed him.
Ah well.