SSN Presenter: Sunderland chasing Arsenal right back - and provides Jebbison update

Sky Sports presenter and Massive Lads Fan Tom White was the latest guest on the Roker Rapport podcast, which will be released later today, as he joined us to chat about the win over AFC Wimbledon, transfers and much more.

During the show, White revealed that Sunderland are in preliminary talks with Arsenal over the potential loan signing of right-back Ryan Alebiosu.

The 19-year-old has been a regular for Arsenal under-23s and is on the club’s radar as Lee Johnson looks to add depth to the right hand side of defence. Exeter’s Josh Key has also been strongly linked with the club in recent weeks and White explains that the rumoured interest in the defender from Sunderland is very much genuine:

We are in for a player from Arsenal called Ryan Alebiosu. Never seen him play, hadn’t heard of him until someone told me about him. We’re in for him but at this stage it’s only in talks. He’s a full-back, don’t even know if he’s right or left.

There was a lot of talk about an Exeter right back, Josh Key, we had a few bids rejected for.

I saw a few conspiracy theories going around that the club had leaked that information to try and appease the fans as we hadn’t signed anyone at that stage.

Well I can assure you that story is absolutely not true, we’ve been in for this Josh Key from Exeter all summer and haven’t been able to get him. I don’t know if that deal is now off now that we’ve signed [Niall] Huggins but we were absolutely in for him and would spend quite a bit of money on him.

Just in case there is anybody out there that thinks it was planted by the club, the club have been silent for the local and national media all summer, so that story was not leaked from the club because I know where it came from myself. We were very much in for him,

This guy from Arsenal, Alebiosu, that would be a loan but at this stage we haven’t actually made the offer. It’s just a case of “in talks”.

Photo by David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images

White also spoke about the ongoing interest in Sheffield United striker Daniel Jebbison and explained that his arrival is being held up as the club are yet to find a taker for Will Grigg:

From the Sheffield United side of things, someone has said that Jebbison has many clubs to choose from. Sunderland are one of which and I believe the reason he hasn’t actually made his decision yet publically is because he has chosen Sunderland but we are waiting to let go of Grigg.

So we’ll see what happens with that one but the point is that if Grigg goes, a striker will come in.

You can listen to the full Roker Rapport podcast with Sky Sports presenter Tom White when it is released later today, to listen to it as soon as it is available, follow Roker Report on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram and subscribe to the Roker Rapport Podcast on iTunes, Acast, Spotify and YouTube.