ROKER ROUNDUP: Soon-to-depart Sunderland striker linked with move to Italian giants Juventus

Owner of Rugby League Hull FC linked with takeover bid

Adam Pearson, the current owner of Rugby League side Hull FC, is said to be heading a consortium that has approached Ellis Short to takeover the club.

According to Alan Nixon of The Sun, Pearson’s consortium believes their offer for the club will be better than the one from the local consortium that have rumoured to be interested recently.

The backers of Pearson’s consortium are ‘a closely-guarded secret’ according to Nixon but Pearson himself is no stranger to football boardrooms. As well as being the owner of Hull FC, Pearson took ownership of Hull City in 2001 when they were languishing in League Two and by the time he left they were in the Championship, he was Executive Chairman at Derby County, Executive Director and Commercial Director at Leeds United and also had a short spell at Sheffield Wednesday, as well as being linked with a failed takeover bid for Huddersfield Town.

Although there are no mention of the sort of figures involved or what plans the consortium would have for the club, Pearson’s involvement, with his vast experience in the business side of football, should at least bring a degree of stability to the club.

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Juventus linked with swap deal for Sunderland forward

In surprise news out of Italy, Fabio Borini has been linked with a surprise move to Juventus. According to various media reports, Juventus are looking for a utility player to fill various roles on the right flank and, with Juve’s manager Massimiliano Allegri apparently a fan of the 27-year-old, it’s been suggested that the Old Lady may offer Mario Mandžukić in exchange.

Borini is currently on loan at the San Siro until the end of the season but with Milan already being required to purchase the striker once the loan deal expires, Sunderland won’t benefit any extra from the deal should it go ahead.

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Sunderland legend takes Torquay to new depths

Torquay were relegated to the National League South at the weekend, the first time the club have been relegated to the sixth tier of English football in their history. In something they should possibly have seen coming, that came on the back of appointing a former Sunderland player as manager in the shape of Gary Owers.

Owers took over from Kevin Nicholson in September but was only able to guide The Gulls to a paltry 10 wins in 36 games which was only enough to see them relegated with two games to go. That has seen Torquay United Supporters’ Trust wondering why a manager was sacked so early into the season but the successor, who guided the team to relegation, is allowed to stay on:

The feedback from the fans on the management of the club is if it’s appropriate to sack a manager after four games for failing, then how come the current manager is allowed to see the rest of the season out?

We were expecting at least some sort of reaction to him coming in, but it was four games before we got a win.

Which all seems very familiar.

Owers recently gave an interview to RokerReport.com in which he discusses his time with the club and gives an interesting insight into our only previous time in the third tier of English football. You can read part one HERE and part two HERE.

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