Nolan To Sunderland? Not If You Respect Ham And Pease Pudding

Ah, the Kevin Nolan question. It tends to accompany a Sam Allardyce appointment so, as a Sunderland blog type thing, it's time we looked at it I suppose. After all, signing him has not been ruled out.

Nolan is available on a free and Sunderland have a squad position to assign to him. He's very much in the 'veteran' stage of his career, but at 33-years-old he's hardly carrying a zimmer around the pitch with him.

There is, of course, the fact he has scored a hat-trick against Sunderland before for Newcastle too, and the only thing more deplorable than that is to score a hat-trick against Sunderland for Newcastle and celebrate each and every one with a chicken-dance, which is exactly what he did.

On the other hand, he has also scored 18 goals in the Premier League in the last three years in an Allardyce team, and he's a very strong character to introduce into what appears to be a very weak dressing room.

So, where do you stand?

Personally, I'm against it. However, it's not on the grounds of pretending to be poultry or daring to do something good for Newcastle. I just don't think he is a good fit for the club from a purely playing perspective.

Those 18 goals he has scored in three years, for example - they have been on an ever-decreasing trajectory, from 10 in 2012-13, then seven, all the way down to one last season.

There is a certain system issue, too. He has always done his best work picking up the scraps from a big lump of a striker up front, but do Sunderland have that kind of player at the moment?

I don't think you'd describe Steven Fletcher as a physical battering ram type, and so signing Kevin Nolan would be like going out to buy pease pudding knowing you have no ham in the fridge.

That is also whether he still has the legs to even get up and down the pitch to get close enough to a striker to make a difference in the first place.

So basically, signing Kevin Nolan would be like going out to buy pease pudding when you know you have no ham in the fridge AND you are not really quite sure if the only bread you have has turned.

Let's face it, that's the kind of lunacy we can all do without.