Official: Kader Mangane Signs On Loan

Sunderland have completed the signing of imposing central defender Kader Mangane on a 6-month loan deal, with a view to a permanent deal.

It's been reported in the Middle East that Sunderland will be paying Al Hilal a fee in the region of 300,000 Euros for the loan deal, along with picking up a significant chunk of his alleged £70k a week wage. This does however remain at the moment to be based on a small selection of reports, it's likely that we'll never truly know.

Martin O'Neill has been keen to capture the giant defender as it fit's quite well with his philosophy of adding more height and power to our team, as he told the Sunderland Echo;

The reality is we are a bit small as a squad, maybe the smallest in the Premier League, and we had problems with the physical aspect in some games earlier in the season.

The acquisition last week of Alfred N'Diaye to go along with Mangane goes some way towards improving on this glaring deficiency in our squad, although O'Neill also said he expects both Mangane and N'Diaye to play a bit too;

Alfred coming in, it's not just absolutely and utterly to do with the size aspect of things. I think he has the talent, and the energy as well.

Mangane will not be eligible to make his debut against Bolton Wanderers tomorrow night as not only will we be needing international clearance but also he's not eligible due to not being registered for the first encounter between our two sides.

There is however a chance he could feature against Wigan Athletic next week.

Mangane will not be jetting off to the African Nations Cup this winter either as Senegal have not qualified.