“We are not interested in Papy Djilobodji” says chief of club linked with Sunderland defender

Reports earlier in the week emanating from Turkey suggested that Super Lig side Trabzonspor were interested in acquiring the services of Papy Djilbodji - but their head honcho has today claimed that those suggestions simply aren’t true.

Turkish outlet Fotospor claimed that the Burgundy-Blues were keen on signing both Djilobodji and his teammate Didier Ndong, and were hoping to take advantage of Sunderland’s need to trim the wage bill by encouraging the players to buy out their contracts, which would allow them to move to Trabzonspor for free.

The Turkish side had been linked with a loan move for Djilobodji over the weekend, with the club being unable to afford the rumoured transfer fee of €5m for the 29-year-old.

Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images

But in a move to refute those reports, Trabzonspor club president Özkan Sumer said:

We are not interested in the defender Papy Djilobodji from Sunderland, contrary to the claims made in the British press.

So that’s that, then.

Here at Roker Report we revealed earlier this week that both men have interested parties monitoring their situation, with the club hopeful of moving them along sooner rather than later.

There is a Russian club that have made a serious enquiry about Djilobodji, whilst there are three clubs looking closely at Ndong - who almost moved to Serie A side Torino before the deal broke down due to ridiculous demands made by the player’s representatives.

Djilobodji’s poor recent playing history, age and high wages make him a difficult player to move along, so in order for all parties to end up satisfied it may well be that the Senegal international has to take a wage cut in order to leave.

David Moyes signed Djilobodji from Chelsea in the summer of 2016 for a fee of around £8m, but he was largely awful right from his very first appearance in a Sunderland shirt and the deal can only be written off as a complete failure.

He spent the majority of last season on loan at French Ligue 1 club Dijon, and did well enough to earn a recall to the Senegal national team for the first time in three years, but unfortunately didn’t make the cut for Aliou Cisse’s World Cup squad this summer.