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Reports in various daily newspapers suggest Sunderland are in the running to sign Chelsea's French defender Kurt Zouma on a season-long loan deal, with the club hoping Lee Congerton's close ties to Chelsea help smooth a deal.
Zouma signed for Chelsea in the January transfer window for a fee of around £12m but has yet to play for the Stamford Bridge club after he was immediately loaned back to his previous club Saint-Etienne. The highly rated 19-year-old is a pacey and powerful central defender, so certainly has the physique to thrive in the Premier League and with John O'Shea and Wes Brown already at the club, as well an on-going interest in Swansea captain Ashley Williams, central defence is one position where we can afford to take a risk on a player with a lack of Premier League experience.
You can check out highlights of Zouma in action for Saint-Etienne below:
Sunderland were also linked with two other Chelsea youngsters, Andreas Christensen and Lewis Baker. 18-year-old Christensen is a central defender who is looking to kick on from Chelsea's academy with his father admitting that he may have to consider his future this summer as he looks to progress;
We are forced to think about Andreas' future and progress, from our point of view, something needs to happen after the summer. Whether it is in the first-team squad or something different, we have to consider. He should not spend one or two years where he stagnates. Andreas will not go on loan.
He has been at Chelsea for two years, but needs to be there for three consecutive years to be what they call 'home-grown'. Chelsea will not let him go.
I have talked to his coach Dermot Drummy, who said that Andreas is ready for the next step.
He would like to keep Andreas, but as he said, for Andreas to progress, he needs to take a step forward. Therefore, I need to have a meeting with Chelsea. In case they don't want to offload him, then they have got to do something to give him a challenge all the time.
It's a matter of his future progress as a footballer.
19-year-old attack minded central midfielder Baker has made one first team appearance for Chelsea but was named the best player in the 2012-13 NextGen Series.
Another player linked with Sunderland from Chelsea yesterday is Victor Moses, the winger had an unsuccessful spell on-loan at Liverpool last season and the Daily Mail claims Sunderland, West Brom and Swansea are all interested in the Nigerian international.
If Sunderland were to sign Zouma on loan, then should we follow-up our interest in the other three Chelsea players, then they would have to be on permanent deals as Premier League rules forbid loaning more than one player from the same club.
The club were also linked with a move for Norwich winger Robert Snodgrass. According to Sky Sports, Sunderland, Hull, West Brom and QPR are all expected to meet Norwich's terms with it then coming down to where the Scottish international sees his future. Although the player only has one-year left on his contract, Hull City have reportedly seen a £6m offer rejected by Norwich for the 26-year-old. At that sort of price, you would expect Sunderland to stay well clear of Snodgrass and turn their attentions elsewhere.
Finally, with Sunderland still waiting for the future of Marcos Alonso to be resolved, they may be looking around for possible alternatives, with Portuguese newspaper A Bola suggesting they are keeping tabs on Malaga's Portuguese left back Antunes. The 27-year-old was in Portugal's World Cup Preliminary Squad and is also being tracked by Lazio and Sevilla.
Stay tuned to Roker Report throughout the summer as we keep you up to date with all the transfer news and rumours. Also, feel free to keep in touch with our dedicated Transfer Centre, which you can do by CLICKING HERE.
