Roker Roundup: Have Aberdeen given up on trying to sign Sunderland’s Dylan McGeouch?

Dons move on from McGeouch?

Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes has been chasing Sunderland midfielder Dylan McGeouch all summer and was keen to get him on board for their Europa League qualifying games.

That move has not happened and McGeough had his contract extended at Sunderland for another year but there were still reports that claimed the Scottish Premiership side remained keen.

Aberdeen may have completely moved on now however, as they are on the verge of signing Scunthorpe United central midfielder Funso Ojo.

Both Aberdeen and Hibernian had agreed fees of £150,000 but the Dons have won the race for his signature according to reports. McInnes confirmed that a bid has been accepted but says the deal is not yet complete:

We’ve had a few bids in for a few players. A couple have been accepted and we haven’t got the signing done but I’ve left that with my recruitment team.

I’m not sure where it is at the minute but except from Gallagher, which was one which came up in our talks with Atlanta, every signing has been where we have faced competition.

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

Target signs new deal

Sunderland will unveil former Coventry City captain Jordan Willis as their latest summer signing later today but another League One captain last season is set to stay at his club after being linked with a move to the Stadium of Light.

Charlton Athletic skipper Jason Pearce had been linked with a move to both Sunderland and Portsmouth this summer but he signed a new deal with the Addicks yesterday that will keep him at the club until 2021.

Speaking to the club’s official website, Pearce referenced the interest in his services but said he was intent on staying with Charlton:

I wanted to get that stability with the club, I enjoy it here. I love the club and it has been a good year and I feel like Charlton are on the up. The club obviously had a bit of interest for me in the summer but it didn’t change anything, I wanted to stay here.

I’m proud that the club have allowed me to extend my contract and hopefully I can repay that with some good performances on the pitch.

Photo by Adam Davy/EMPICS/PA Images via Getty Images

Academy product praises McCarthy

Sunderland academy product Mark Rossiter career ground to a halt back in 2003 after he suffered a knee tumour which eventually ended in his release in 2005.

The right back made a few appearances for the Sunderland first team before his career in England was cut short and speaking to the LOI Weekly podcast about that experience, Rossiter praised then Sunderland manager Mick McCarthy for his handling of the situation and following up even once he had left the club:

It was a tumour in my knee. I had to get a bone graft from my hip to construct my knee when I was 19.

Then I had a recurrence of it so they more or less had to snap my medial a second time and then I had another recurrence two years later. So it was in 2003, 2004 and 2006. The surgeon at the time said it’s the closest you will get to a career-ending injury. It was malignant growth, but it wasn’t life-threatening.

I can remember Mick McCarthy had come in after Howard Wilkinson and we were playing against Manchester United in the ressies. I was marking Quinton Fortune and he got taken off at half-time because he couldn’t get a touch.

But I can remember Mick after the game, in the dressing room, and he said ‘you’re the closest thing to Stephen Carr.’

So I was like ‘class, I’m delighted with life’. So I came in next day and Kevin Kilbane comes in and says ‘what are you smiling about?’

And I just went ‘ah I had a decent game last night and Mick was buzzing with me.’ So he said ‘what did he say?’

And I told him what Mick had said and he said ‘Nah.’ And me heart sank. He said ‘you’re a far better footballer than Stephen Carr.’

That was in March [2003] and then I got called up to the Irish under-21s because Thomas Butler pulled out with injury and I tore my cruciate.

Tearing my cruciate actually saved me in terms of being able to play.

In January that year I had played in the FA Cup and got stretchered off and that triggered the tumour.

It was misdiagnosed as a cyst and it grew four times the size in six months.

So my knee started to distort. I was going back for a check-up on my cruciate and I said it to him.

He stuck a syringe in to get fluid and there was nothing there. So I went to a specialist and I was diagnosed then.

That was a Friday, I was in on a Monday, was diagnosed on the Wednesday and had surgery then and was in hospital for two weeks.

Mick, to me, is one of the best. I’d left Sunderland in 2004 after I was rehabbing for about six or seven months when I got the second tumour done and I moved back to Sligo in April or May 2005.

So I had a recurrence of the tumour in 2006. I got this phone call at home it was like 11 in the morning so I went out to answer it and it was Mick.

He said to me, ‘I’ve heard you’ve just been diagnosed with another tumour.’

He said ‘the club is open to you in any capacity.’ To me he’s one of the best I’ve met, a gentleman. He didn’t need to do it and any time he came over, when he was manager of Wolves and we played them with Bohs in a friendly, he’s just one of the classiest men I’ve met.

Photo by Tony Marshall/EMPICS via Getty Images