Roker Roundup: Defender recalls the time he was ‘messed about’ by Sunderland over contract offer

Matt Mills on Sunderland ‘circus’

Following Sunderland’s relegation to League One and the subsequent takeover by Stewart Donald and Madrox, the squad had to be rebuilt and one of the first targets was the then recently released Barnsley defender Matt Mills.

The move would eventually fall through and Mills has been speaking about that experience on the most recent episode of Undr The Cosh.

According to Mills, there was a conflict at the boardroom level about how much he would be offered and the now retired centre back went on to describe the possibility of joining a ‘circus’:

I went on a training camp with a Saudi Arabian club to Austria but then Sunderland called me and said they’d like me to fly back and do a medical. So, I flew back and went up to Sunderland when Jack Ross was manager, I got offered a deal and I was like I’m in Austria in a training camp and they said they would make me an offer.

I got on a plane and flew back, and the phone goes. ‘Oh yeah, you know the deal. Yeah, it’s not that anymore, it’s 50% of that’. So, I said asked why am I in in the airport flying home when you told me the deal was this but actually it’s THIS.

It was when that guy had took over, it was him but they had someone else in to run the club. So, the owner was saying ‘we’ll pay him that’ but the other guy running the club was saying they can’t afford that, so we’ll pay you this. I’m sitting in Germany thinking here we go, it’s another circus I’m joining.

I flew home and done the medical and spoke with the manager [Jack Ross] but when I spoke to him, I’m looking at him thinking ‘do you know, what I know that the deal has been halved?’

So, I’m a bit uncertain as to what’s happened and maybe he’s picked up on that. Because it got to the end of the chat and I said I’ve got my stuff, am I going to a hotel and he asked where I live, so I told him Manchester.

He said, ‘you’ve got kids, so get yourself off’. I’m thinking what the fuck is going on here. I got in the car and said to my agent and said, ‘that is the weirdest thing ever’ and he said ‘yeah it’s not going to happen now’

You can watch the full episode of Undr The Cosh with Matt Mills by pressing play on the YouTube video below:

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

---

Duo hang up their boots

Two former Sunderland strikers decided to hang up their boots this week, with both Dame N’Doye and Nacho Scocco calling it a day on their careers.

Neither forward was a success at Sunderland, scoring just one goal between them - N’Doye’s effort at home to Crystal Palace. N’Doye had joined on-loan from Trabzonspor in the 2016 transfer window and Scocco joined for a fee of around £3m from Internacional.

N’Doye ends his career after a spell with former side FC Copenhagen, where he would go on to score 36 goals in 66 games.

Meanwhile, Scocco would depart Sunderland after just six months to return to his boyhood club Newell’s Old Boys, where he would stay for three years, he then spent another three years with River Plate before finishing his career with a third spell at Newell’s.

Photo by Simon Stacpoole/Mark Leech Sports Photography/Getty Images