Roker Roundup: Details of rejected Sunderland bid on deadline day for Shrewsbury man revealed

Another rejected bid revealed

Sunderland finally confirmed the League One record transfer of Will Grigg from Wigan Athletic yesterday, but that came after a flurry of bids and interest in other strikers as the club looked to strengthen Jack Ross’ striking options.

John Marquis of Doncaster Rovers was reportedly the subject of two bids, the latter of which was reported to be £2m, Leyton Orient rejected a £300,000 offer for Josh Koroma, the club were rebuffed in a £400,000 move for Plymouth Argyle’s Freddie Ladapo and then interest was supposedly registered for the likes of Matty Taylor, Tom Eaves, Kieffer Moore and Sam Surridge.

According to the Shropshire Star, Sunderland also failed with a late deadline day move for Shrewsbury Town’s top scorer Fejiri Okenabirhie.

The report claims Shrewsbury had no intention of selling their prize asset, who is under contract with the club until 2020, and who has scored 14 goals in 24 games this season, including a hat-trick in his side’s 4-3 defeat at Bradford City on Tuesday.

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New signing up for award

New Sunderland signing Kazaiah Sterling is one of four players nominated for the Premier League 2 player of the month award.

The Tottenham Hotspur loanee was nominated alongside Jahmal Hector-Ingram (West Ham United), Anthony Spyrou (Norwich City) and Thibaud Verlinden (Stoke City), with the nominations being decided by PL2 coaches nominating the best opposing player during each of their matches last month.

The winner will be selected by the Premier League’s Football Development Panel and announced on Friday, 8 February.

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Jones on worst Sunderland performance

Rotherham United’s on-loan Bristol City defender Zak Vyner has been the target of boo-boys lately, which saw him rested for the game against Leeds United last week as Paul Warne took him out of the firing line.

Ex-Sunderland defender Billy Jones took his place in the team for that game and says he understands what Vyner is going through after his own poor performances at Sunderland led to criticism from the crowd.

Jones says he should not have been in the side at all when he was at his worst and that he was found out, despite giving his all:

It was a time when I was playing in the team and maybe should not have been on the pitch.

I was not right and instead of taking a seat and saying, ‘no, listen, I cannot function properly’, I tried to play through it thinking I would be okay and I would get to half-time and it would improve. It just did not and I learned my lesson from that.

Obviously if you are not 100 per cent crossing that white line you usually get found out and it was literally my worst performance for Sunderland. That is why I got the boos coming off and the ironic cheers.

Even though it was my worst performance I was giving everything I had that day and it just let me down and a lesson learned. It was a really dark place and memory.

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