Roker Roundup: Marcus Maddison was offered to Sunderland this summer - but we turned him down

Sunderland reject Maddison offer

Marcus Maddison has been near the top of the wanted lists of many Sunderland fans this summer, and during a Podcast interview with Roker Report - which you can listen to later in the week, details are down below - Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony revealed that his club actually offered the winger to Sunderland back in June.

Director of Football Barry Fry was looking for potential suitors for the creative midfielder this summer, with Posh believing the player deserved to play at a higher level. The Championship was the ideal target, but with any big club outside the Championship that would provide the player a step up also being considered.

Grant McCann at Hull City was interested in the self-confessed Sunderland fan but after the Tigers offered a ‘derisory sum’ through an agent, Sunderland were approached about signing the 25-year-old.

Fry spoke to head of football operations at Sunderland Richard Hill to offer the player’s services but despite Jack Ross being a fan of the player, Hill said he did not Maddison and Sunderland would not be making an offer:

We knew we were going into the last year of Marcus Maddison’s contract and either we said to Marcus that “look, we’ll see if we can get you a move”, he’s served his time at Peterborough United in League One and if ever a player deserved to go to the Championship or a big football club, it’s Marcus - it would have to be a big football club outside the Championship.

Marcus Maddison is a Sunderland fan - I think everyone knows that from when he was a kid around that neck of the woods.

When we played you at our place - in April, the 1-1 - your manager had said to our gaffer ‘What a player that boy is, I really liked him last summer but we heard bad things about him and that’s why we didn’t go in for him’.

That was the conversation between the two gaffers.

So Barry [Fry] doing his job in June, started making phone calls because we need to know ahead of time if we are going to sell a player as we need to replace them.

He made a few calls to clubs in the Championship and said ‘look, everyone knows about his release clause but if we are going to do any business with Marcus, it’s got to be in June. Otherwise we’re probably not going to do any business’.

We knew Grant McCann wanted him at Hull, he got the job at the end of June. A bid that was made through his agent was derisory.

So Baz rang Richard [Hill] and they had a conversation in June and I was at a waterpark in Dubai when Barry rang me.

He said ‘Oh, I’ve spoke to Richard...”, I said ‘Did the Marcus thing come up?’ he said ‘yeah, I said your manager likes him, is there any interest?’ and Richard said to Barry along the lines of ‘We don’t rate him, I don’t anyway and there is no way that we will be bidding for Marcus Maddison.

Obviously I’m a big Marcus Maddison fan, so I’m like ‘are you kidding me?!’ and he goes ‘no, that’s what he said!’.

You can listen to the full interview with Darragh MacAnthony when the Roker Rapport podcast is released later in the week. Follow us on Twitter and subscribe on iTunes, Acast, Spotify and YouTube to listen to the podcast for free as soon as it’s available.

Photo by Zac Goodwin/PA Images via Getty Images

Catts discusses Venlo move

Lee Cattermole made his debut for VVV-Venlo at the weekend, took only nine minutes to get booked and made a last ditch sliding tackle that earned him plaudits.

The combative midfielder then spoke about his decision to move to the Netherlands and said he put a lot of thought into this move - believing it will help him in his future coaching career, as well as being a good life experience:

I don’t think many players have left England to come to Holland, unless it was home for them but I just think for the opportunity for me and my age, it was a nice challenge to have.

I could have stayed in England and maybe finish my career but not had the experience of this and that’s a life experience.

I think when I finish playing football, I might go into coaching or something, so it’s good to see the different styles.

There was a lot of thought behind it and it just felt right.