Roker Roundup: Sunderland “willing to offer” £800k for Aberdeen man; bid in for Man Utd keeper?

McCrorie on Johnson’s radar

With the end of the season a maximum of only two weeks away, Sunderland are being linked with more players as the rumour mill goes into overdrive.

One of the names being linked is Aberdeen midfielder Ross McCrorie, with the Daily Record claiming Lee Johnson has him on his summer shopping list and is willing to offer £800,000 for his signature.

McCrorie only joined Aberdeen from Rangers at the beginning of last season for a fee of £350,000, initially on loan but fast tracked into a permanent move in January following Scott Wright’s move to Ibrox.

New Dons manager Stephen Glass is looking to reshape his squad following his arrival and has already made an offer for Sunderland linked Rotherham defender Clark Robertson.

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Murray excited for future

Former Sunderland chairman Bob Murray is excited for the future at Sunderland, regardless of which division the club are in next season, thanks to the arrival of Kyril Louis-Dreyfus.

Murray told the Sun that although the club has a terrible record in the play-offs, the experience and wealth behind Louis-Dreyfus’ takeover of Sunderland has led him to hope that the club will be back in the Premier League in the near future, regardless of results in the upcoming League One play-offs:

We’re not very good at the play-offs, it’s not our thing.

But records are there to be broken. We hadn’t won at Wembley in 50 years before we won the Papa John’s Trophy in March.

The last time we were in the third tier in 1987/88 we were promoted straight away and had one year in the old Division Two before winning promotion again.

Sadly we struggled to sustain the team having come from that low. But with these gentlemen’s experience and wealth, it’s different.

We fell from the Premier League to League One in two years, so why couldn’t we go up in three?

But I’m excited about next season whatever division we are in because I know we’ve got a future.

Murray goes on to say that a priority has to be turning around the fortunes at the Academy of Light and believes that will be the case with the investment expected to be on par with that of Premier League clubs:

He’s got to turn the academy around. We have Sunderland-born children playing for Newcastle, which says everything.

When I left we had Jordan Henderson and Jordan Pickford in there.

We have one of the best academies in Britain but it’s like having a factory with no raw materials. It’s ridiculous.

That’s their priority. I’ve been introduced to all the backroom staff and the investment will be more like for a Premier League than a League One club.

He’s got a massive job on but one of the good things is that the previous owners got us to such a low base that it can only go one way.

They’re not here to make a quick buck.

Kyril is considered and articulate with knowledge beyond his years – and his English is better than mine.

He even bought me a Sunderland shirt and had my name put on it, which was a lovely gesture.

His family have a great heritage in football and it was great to see from the outset him taking time to understand the history and heritage of the club, and wanting to engage.

I’m sure we’ve got our club back – I’ll put my name to that.

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Other transfer rumours

Middlesbrough have recently been linked with a free transfer move for Charlie Wyke, with Sunderland’s top scorer set to be out of contract in the summer.

Neil Warnock wants to sign three strikers ahead of next season, however Teeside Live say that Wyke is not currently on the Boro manager’s radar.

Instead the Championship outfit have been linked with the likes of James Collins of Luton, Rotherham’s Michael Smith and Famara Diedhiou of Bristol City.

Sunderland have reportedly made an offer for Manchester United youngster Jacob Carney. The goalkeeper is set to depart Old Trafford in the summer but the 20-year-old has been earning plaudits for his displays for Portadown in the NIFL Premiership.

The Sun on Sunday (pg. 59) say that Sunderland, Brighton and Hove Albion and Burnley have all made an offer for the shot-stopper.

Former Sunderland winger Charis Mavrias is set to sign for Cypriot side Apollon Limassol on a free transfer according to goal.com.cy.

The Greek international will join Apollon from AC Omonia, who pipped his prospective new side to the Cyprus First Division title just 10 days ago.

Mavrias was a team-mate of Jordi Gomez at Omonia but will now link up with another ex-Black Cat in Valentin Roberge.

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