ROKER ROUNDUP: Top managerial candidate refuses to deny Sunderland link; Cabral causes a scene!

Wilder refuses to deny Sunderland link

Chris Wilder appears to head the shortlist to be the next Sunderland manager, which was the main topic of conversation in the Sheffield United’s pre-match press conference.

When asked whether or not he had rethought his comments last week regarding that he won’t stay at a club longer than he should due to the current boardroom problems at Bramall Lane, Wilder responded:

What I will say is that I won’t retract anything. We all have choices and options. I don’t know what the future holds. You can’t in football. I had it as a player and I’ve had it as a manager. I had my say. I’ve said my piece. I will do because it’s my football club. I thought it through.

The 50-year-old did say that he hadn’t thought about it being his last game in charge of his boyhood team but did bring up the old ‘anything can happen in football’ cliche:

There will always be speculation, I can’t do anything about speculation. What I can is try to get clarity for my football club. I’ve not thought about this being my last game. The club might get taken over tomorrow and whoever does it might want to bring their own guy in.

Interestingly, late in the press conference, Wilder attempted to emphasise how well his Sheffield United team had done this season - as well as this weekend’s opponents Bristol City - compared to other bigger teams in the division and seemed to stumble over his words once he realised he could be making a criticism of Sunderland:

I think from both club’s points of views, I think it’s been an outstanding season for both clubs and shows what can be done. Lee and his team - there are a lot of similarities between both clubs. Both have been in really good positions - better positions that what we are in now and I think we both envisaged that, coming down the straight, that there would be a lot more riding on this game but there isn’t.

I don’t think it’s for the want of trying, I don’t think it’s for the want of an attitude in the group, their group is a very similar one to ours. They want to win, they want to do the best for their football club. There’s no big egos, there’s no massively overpaid players, there’s no, y’know, names on backs of shirts and badges on club shirts that urm that represents the...the...the possibly...urm, the you know, the urm...the attitude of...of Championship football clubs that maybe are below us and urm they have had a really good season and I think we are...we have.

You can listen to the full interview below, with the section above occuring at around the 17 minute mark.

Cabral makes a scene

Former Sunderland midfielder Cabral has hit the headlines in Switzerland after ‘attacking’ a comedian at a luncheon for Lausanne-Sport.

Thomas Wiesel, the comedian in question, was on stage doing a fifteen minute routine when one of his skits hit a nerve with the Cape Verde international. Apparently making an anal sex joke that referenced the rape charge that Cabral had over him while at Sunderland - which he was cleared of - and his poor on-pitch performances was enough to set the midfielder off.

As soon as the ceremony was over, Cabral confronted the comedian and had to be held back by his Lausanne-Sport team-mates. Wiesel was unapologetic afterwards but did say that he was a fan of the team, wished them well in their fight against relegation and hoped that his jokes on stage make them react on the pitch.

Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images

Robson sees action in Norwegian Cup

Josh Robson was in action for Notoddon on Wednesday as his loan club saw off Third Division side Asker 3-0.

Robson played the full 90 minutes in the comfortable win and was happy to see his team get through to the third round where they will face a home tie against top flight side Odds Ballklubb.