Author: index

It looks like Fulham is eager to secure the services of the full back Phil Bardsley. They have been reported to have placed another bid for the player who belongs to Sunderland at the moment.

Gus Poyet, who is in charge at Sunderland, had rejected the first offer made by Fulham a few days back. According to the reports, the Uruguayan boss doesn’t want to let the Scottish player go and he has already promised him of a contract extension in summer.

This is Bardsley’s 6th year at Sunderland. He had signed for the club at the start of 2008.
He had fallen out of favour in the first half of the ongoing season and that had led to the rumours that he would be on his way in January, but, the sacking of Paolo Di Canio changed the scenario. Gus Poyet came in and he gave regular playing chances to the defender.
As a result, Bardsley started enjoying himself again at the club and he is in no mood to leave now.

Bardsley was the hero for Sunderland in their most recent outing against Manchester United in the Capital One Cup. He struck in that match and helped his team seal a final berth.
Talking to the reporters about Bardsley yesterday, Poyet said, “I arrived and had a look at Bardsley. I thought he was a guy with a lot of potential. So, I gave him opportunities, but, I told him that the mistakes would not be tolerated. I am happy that he has delivered the goods.”

Meanwhile, Poyet is all set to land Ignacio Scocco at the Stadium of Light after paying a transfer fee of 2.5 million Pounds to Internacional. Scocco is an Argentinean international who plays as a forward.

Sunderland has struggled big time in the ongoing Premier League and the main reason behind that is their lack of goals. They haven’t been able to find the back of the net as many times as they would have liked to.

Phil Bardsley is aware of this problem of his team. The other day, while answering the questions of the reporters, the 28 years old defender admitted that his side will have to make big improvements up front to avoid the relegation.

The Black cats have so far played 20 matches in the Premier League and they have managed to secure three points in only 3 of those matches. In 11 matches, they have suffered defeats, while, on 6 occasions, they have shared points with their opposition. Their points’ tally reads just 14 at the moment and they are right at the bottom of the league table at this point of time.
In 9 of their league matches this season, Sunderland hasn’t scored a goal and that itself tells the story of their impotency up front.

In their most recent outing against Aston Villa on the 1st of January, Sunderland had played with as many as 3 forwards, despite that, they failed to score. Villa won the game easily by 1-0.

Talking to the reporters about Sunderland’s performance in the ongoing season, Bardsley said, “It’s not that we haven’t created opportunities. We have done that, but, most of those opportunities have gone begging. We have not been able to convert them into goals.”

The Sunderland boss, Gus Poyet, is believed to be interested in signing a quality forward during the mid season transfer window, but, he doesn’t have a big budget to do that. It would be interesting to see what he does in January.

Former Sunderland manager Paolo di Canio has denied that he was sacked by the club after losing a power struggle against his players.

According to reports emerging from the Black Cats camp, the fiery Italian manager was sacked immediately after the club hierarchy got wind of a training ground bust between the former West Ham United player and some of his stars. The former Lazio and AC Milan player was handed the pink slip last month and was replaced by former Chelsea player Gus Poyet as the manager earlier in October.

But according to di Canio, who left the club when it was rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table, there was absolutely no training ground bust up with his players or anything else as is being reported in the English media. He went on to state that many of his former players have since sent him text messages, thanking him for his time as the Sunderland manager and helping them to become better footballers.

Di Canio was brought in to replace Martin O’Neill as the manager of the club and guided them to safety in the league, winning two of his seven matches in charge last season, including a 3-0 hammering of fierce local rivals Newcastle United. He mentioned that when he was given the chance of managing the club and the aim of keeping them in the league, he was happy and thankful because the club gave him a chance to manage in the Premier League.

He stated that he walked into a challenging situation and walked out unscathed but he also stated that he doesn’t hold any grudges against Sunderland and its board members. He also admitted that he is still confident in his abilities and is looking to manage another club in England soon.

Sunderland defender Phil Bardsley has suffered a major injury, which will rule him out for at least 10 weeks of the new Premier league campaign. Even more than the injury, manager Paolo Di Canio will be worried about the player being sold. Bardsley has been linked with a move away from Sunderland in the last few weeks.

The likes of Fulham, Blackburn, and Newcastle United have been showing interest in the player. The transfer window is set to end in the next couple of weeks, and it looks like the player will stay at the Stadium of Light until January.

The defender certainly does not figure in the plans of the manager, but the club needed to sell him in order to raise money for new players. The defender has been training with the reserves in the last few weeks. He was also left out of the pre-season tour of the first team.

Instead, he was involved in the pre-season developed for the reserve team. The player has suffered a broken foot in the match against Bolton under 21s. He was forced to leave the field at half-time. This injury news, though, will come as good news for Newcastle United fans, who have not been happy with their club being linked with a Sunderland player.

Meanwhile, defender John O’Shea has hailed the presence of manager Di Canio, who has been unwilling to rest his players in the pre-season.

“We’ve put in a lot of graft and some of the pre-season performances have been really positive. The acid test comes when the ­Premier League starts, but hopefully this squad is better balanced than last year with better options. There is so much more competition for places,” said the former United defender. Sunderland’s first match of the season will be against Fulham at home.