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It seems that, even in a summer as resplendent as this one for Sunderland transfer success, we are not allowed to sign a left back.
The club have hit roadblocks in their pursuits of Danny Rose, Benjamin Mendy, and possibly Lucas Orban too, but will be reassured to read that they are the 'first choice' of at least one of their reported targets.
The agent of Inter Milan youngster Cristiano Biraghi - who earlier this week denied any knowledge at all of any Sunderland interest in his player - now insists:
Playing in England is the dream of all players. Valentino Angeloni knows him [Biraghi] right from the youth team and Paolo Di Canio is a great coach.
[Sunderland] is definitely a welcome destination. We'll see how the market develops.
At the moment I put the Premier League as the boy's first choice.
Whether or not Sunderland hold a genuine interest in Biraghi remains to be seen. Generally speaking, the more an agent talks in public the less he has to say. It sounds a little more like them advertising that they are open to a move more than anything else.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if this was similar to the Daniel Bessa situation, where he was widely reported as a loan target when he was, in fact, offered by his club instead.
Nevertheless we thought it was worth mentioning anyway. You never know, after all!