Roker Roundup: Sunderland are linked with the signing of Cambridge Utd midfielder Paul Digby

Sunderland linked with Digby

Sunderland will be looking to add new faces to central midfield this summer following the release of Grant Leadbitter, Josh Scowen and Max Power, and have been linked with a move for Cambridge United midfielder Paul Digby as they look to rebuild.

Football Insider say Sunderland, Charlton Athletic and Oxford United are all targeting the 26-year-old defensive midfielder on a free contract.

Although out of contract next month, Cambridge have offered a new deal to Digby in the hopes of keeping one of the mainstays of their League Two promotion campaign.

Digby started out at Barnsley where he had a short spell working under Lee Johnson but the player was keen to stress to Cambridgeshire Live when asked about his future, following promotion being clinched, that he has no idea what the future holds due to concentrating on the season:

I just want to have such a good night tonight. I’m not even thinking. Someone asked me the other day, and I’ve just been so focused on winning and getting promoted.

Credit to the club, because they’ve not even spoken to us about it, they’ve just let us focus on our job. My agent as well, he’s just said ‘focus on your job, get your job done’. I’ve not even spoken to anyone about.

I just want to enjoy tonight for now, and we’ll see what happens.

Photo by Jacques Feeney/Getty Images

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Aberdeen DoF on potentially selling Sunderland target

Sunderland were also linked with a £800,000 move for Aberdeen midfielder Ross McCrorie recently and the club’s director of football Steven Gunn has said that his club have a clear pathway as to when it’s the right time to sell their emerging talent.

McCrorie only signed for the Dons permanently in January for £350,000, following a successful loan from Rangers during first half of the season and has another three years left to run on his contract.

With the Evening Express saying that Sunderland are considering a £1m bid for the former Portsmouth loanee, Gunn explained to the newspaper that he does not want to sell too many players in the same window but understands the need to sell as it gives him chance to reinvest in the squad:

We actually do an exercise called predicting the future squad.

That informs us in terms of how many minutes we think a player will play and what value we think financially they will bring to the team.

We have a pathway in terms of when we think the optimal time to sell our young developing talent will be. We want to make sure we don’t sell them all in the same window, however, we need to still be competitive on the pitch as well.

We are being a little bit greedy as we want to achieve so many different things.

We want to be competitive on the pitch and we want to build a value in the squad, which we can then reinvest back if we sell players but we also want home-grown talent.

To try to achieve all those things will be a challenge, but we are confident we can step up to that challenge.

Photo by Steven Hadlow/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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Le Tallec retires

Former Sunderland loanee Anthony Le Tallec called time on his playing career this week, the 36-year-old retires after a spell with FC Annecy.

Le Tallec looked back on his long career with Normandie, that took in spells at Liverpool, Le Mans and Auxerre, amongst others.

Speaking about his time at the Stadium of Light, Le Tallec praises the Sunderland fans and says that is where he learned English and real English football.

This is where I learned English. In Liverpool, there were a lot of French people, so I didn’t make the effort. But when I got there, on loan, there was only one French [Christian Bassila]. I did not have the choice.

I’m also learning what British football is, the real one. And the supporters of Sunderland! They are so hot. The experience has been truly enriching.

Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images