Donald rubbishes Cattermole deal claims
News broke yesterday that claimed Lee Cattermole’s proposed move to Bordeaux had broken down, with the report suggesting that Sunderland were not keen on the terms of the loan deal, as well as the Ligue 1 club struggling to afford the midfielder’s wages.
Sunderland owner Stewart Donald took to Twitter last night to deny those reports in France, saying the claims were ‘utter rubbish’.
Although a move to Bordeaux may still be a possibility for Cattermole, their manager and ex-Sunderland boss Gus Poyet played down suggestions that the midfielder would be arriving at the Ligue 1 club:
We are talking about a player who played with me in Sunderland but they say anything there.
If every player who is linked with Bordeaux comes, we’d have the biggest team in the world. No, but we are trying [to bring players in].
Kaboul discusses Sunderland
In the latest issue of France Football magazine, they preview the latest Premier League season and as part of that preview they have interviewed former Sunderland defender Younes Kaboul.
Kaboul looks back on his Premier League career and says the best atmosphere he has ever experienced is the Tyne-Wear derby:
The craziest atmosphere I’ve ever known is for the derby between Sunderland and Newcastle.
When I arrived, I was told, “Listen, there are two rules in our house: 1. Beat Newcastle. 2. Stay up. The rest, we don’t care!”.
One player also told me: “You’ll see, it’s not your North London derby here...” I thought, “Oh, but he’s sick! Arsenal-Tottenham, it’s fire, impossible it’s more than that”.
He was right.
You can’t get out of that game having lost. If that’s the case, you’ve lost your season. It was too much, really too much. It’s simple, for this game, the north of England stops.
The centre-back also looks back on a post-match rant from Sam Allardyce after we snatched a last minute draw at Stoke in 2016 thanks to a late Jermain Defoe penalty:
I remember a memorable rant at Stoke (1-1). For five minutes, at the end of the game, he told us we were out of it, rotten, yelled at us.
And after he completely lost it, he turns around before he gets out of the locker room: “That’s right guys, you’ve taken a good point.” He just finished us for five minutes and he’s telling us this?
In fact, he was sending a message and was already preparing for the next game. They’re passionate. He and [Harry] Redknapp know this championship better than their wife. They’re characters. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer managers like them.
He says one of his most memorable experiences in the Premier League was staying up with Sunderland during that season with Allardyce in charge, an experience that left him in tears:
There is staying up with Sunderland too... I cried in the field, it was a crazy thing. In January, for all the world, we were doomed. What saved us was the locker room and the supporters.
The 32-year-old Watford player also mentions a funny story about how former Sunderland striker Steven Fletcher was struggling with a simple change of culture while he was on loan at Marseille:
When he was at Marseille, Steven Fletcher, with whom I played at Sunderland, had sent me a picture and he asked me “is it normal that they dip toast in the coffee?” I was laughing and told him it’s French. He replied ”It’s weird here“. But no that’s just what is normal, it’s not what you do!
Sartori’s five-year plan
Juan Sartori was a guest on Uruguayan radio station Sport 890 yesterday to speak about his co-ownership of Sunderland.
During the interview Sartori mentioned that there is a five-year plan in place but the overriding aim is to get Sunderland back in the Premier League as soon as possible.
Amongst other things, he also discussed the 80% turnover of the workforce at the club and hiring Jack Ross as the new manager.
"Es un proyecto de cinco años donde lo más importante es poder volver a La Premier. Hemos cambiado el 80% de la plantilla y contratamos un nuevo entrenador" Juan Sartori, uruguayo nuevo propietario del @SunderlandAFC
— Bambino Etchegoyen (@Bambino627) August 15, 2018