ROKER ROUNDUP: Sunderland set to miss out again? & another backroom appointment made

Academy Manager appointed

Sunderland have appointed former Carlisle United, Eastleigh, Northampton Town and Colchester United player Paul Reid as their new academy manager. He will replace Jimmy Sinclair who retired earlier in the summer.

After retiring as a player, Reid had a short spell as player-manager at National League South side Whitehawk - a position he took up after Stewart Donald’s football adviser Richard Hill had left to join Tony Coton in the scouting department at Aston Villa.

After Whitehawk, Reid returned to former club Eastleigh as their head of recruitment, while the south coast club were under the ownership of Donald.

36-year-old Reid has the UEFA B coaching badge and will work at Sunderland alongside assistant academy manager Elliott Dickman, head of coaching Mark McCormick and academy operations manager Leann Cowperthwaite.

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Khazri in action

Wahbi Khazri captained Tunisia last night in their World Cup group game against England. Khazri started and led the line for his country; it looked as if they had done enough to pinch a point when the 27-year-old was subbed with five minutes to go, only for Harry Kane to win it late on for England.

Gareth Southgate’s men had taken the lead after only 11 minutes thanks to Kane, but when Kyle Walker was harshly adjudged to have fouled Fakhredinne Ben Youssef just after the half-hour mark, Ferjani Sassi stepped up to fire past Sunderland academy graduate Jordan Pickford in the England goal.

Other than the penalty, which he managed to get his fingertips on but couldn’t keep out, Pickford had a quiet night. Another academy product Jordan Henderson also started and shone for England in the heart of midfield in what was a proud night for Sunderland’s academy.

Khazri, on the other hand, will be using the tournament as an opportunity to showcase his talents as he looks for a move away from the club this summer. Sunderland will be hoping for good showings against Panama and Belgium in order to get the best price possible for the wantaway Tunisian.

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Sunderland to miss out... again

After recently reporting about the new Sunderland regime’s frustration at the lack of sell-on clause in Jordan Pickford’s Everton contract, a fact which may become more frustrating in the future if Bayern Munich or Manchester United firm up their interest, there may be a similar source of frustration on the horizon.

Portuguese outlet O Jogo, report that Sebastian Coates is set to leave Sporting CP in the near future. The Uruguayan defender will not be rescinding his contract like so many of his Sporting team-mates have done due to the upheaval at the Estádio José Alvalade, but is still certain to leave the club.

According to the report, Sporting are hoping for around €12m for Coates - despite the defender’s €45m buyout clause - and they say Sporting will receive every penny of that transfer fee and will not have to transfer any of that fee to another entity. Indicating that, yet again, the old regime lacked the foresight of adding a sell-on clause to a departing player’s contract.

Coates, who is under contract at Sporting until 2022 after signing from Sunderland for €5m, has recently been linked with a move to La Liga sides Sevilla and Valencia.

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