Claims Sunderland to raid Bundesliga & target German-speaking boss; Borini set for Lazio talks

A Deutsch focus as the Germans close in

According to the journalist who broke the news of a German-led consortium being in talks with owner Ellis Short to buy Sunderland, the Black Cats will seek to recruit a manager who can speak German and will come with the nous to raid the Bundesliga for bargains.

Alan Nixon, journalist for The Sun, was busy speculating on social media last night that this will be the direction Sunderland's new owners will take - assuming their buy-out bid is successful.

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And whilst it's an obvious conclusion to draw: German owners = Deutsch-focussed football model, the suggestion possesses merits as demonstrated by a growing trend towards looking in the direction of Bundesliga I and Bundesliga II in English football.

Notably, Huddersfield built their recent promotion to the Premier League on a German manager with talent scooped from the top two tiers in football from Deutschland.

Terriers boss David Wagner plotted raids on Kaiserslautern, Dresden and FC Union Berlin, to mention but three during his first months in English football, and his recruitment activity was accompanied by pre-season games in Germany last summer.

In truth, the German market has been under-utilised in this country to date. Assumed to be readily compatible with the rigours of English football, players from the Bundesliga tend to come equipped for the top levels of the game in this country. And the current relative spending power in the top divisions in England may yet see more players making their way from Deutschland.

As for the manager Sunderland may appoint, certainly Jurgen Klopp and David Wagner are the two highest profile Germanic managers operating in England right now but there are others mooted when vacancies arise over here.

Norwich are said to have had a look at Union Berlin's Jens Keller as well as former Hamburger boss Bruno Labbadia before appointing fellow German, Daniel Farke, last month as their new boss. The 40-year-old was appointed from Borussia Dortmund II.

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Sunderland may yet follow suit and consider one of those the Canaries opted not to appoint. Keller for one has already been loosely linked with the vacancy at the Stadium of Light.

Meanwhile, reports continue to suggest Sunderland's most recent German player, Jan Kirchhoff, is likely to be picked up by a Premier League or Bundesliga club who are willing to take a shot at restoring him to peak fitness. Now released by Sunderland, would new German owners opt to give him a fresh chance at the Stadium of Light?

Borini set for talks with Lazio

According to reports in Italy, Lazio boss Simone Inzaghi has confirmed an interest in Sunderland's Fabio Borini and the Italian forward's representatives met with the Rome club on Tuesday to discuss a deal.

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News outlet Il Messaggero are also reporting that the 26-year-old's past links with city rivals Roma will not be a barrier to Lazio signing the Black Cats' attacker. The report goes further into outlining how Borini will fit into their forward line-up.

Borini has previously been linked with AC Milan and Celtic. But the former club appear to have bigger targets in mind with current suggestions that they will move for Everton's Gerard Deulofeu and Real Madrid's James Rodriguez.

Borini's wage demands have likely priced him out of a move to the Scottish champions. The forward is one of the top earners at Sunderland raking in circa £60,000 a week. He signed for the Black Cats from a position of bargaining power with the club finally landing him in its second summer of pursuit.

The top earner at Celtic is on about £25,000 a week and the 26-year-old would rake in more at the relegated Black Cats than he would in Scotland.

Former Sunderland Director of Football and agent to Fabio Borini, Roberto De Fanti, appeared on the radio in Italy on Tuesday to talk up his client's prospects of a move to Lazio but suggested there have been no concrete discussions involving a summer transfer for the player yet.