Anton is not going anywhere
By The Black Cats
July 3 2009
Sunderland have stated that young star centre back Anton Ferdinand is not going anywhere in the current transfer window, or anytime in the near future. Also, chairman Niall Quinn is not predicting a major overhaul of the Sunderland squad as new manager Steve Bruce looks to tinker with the side following last season’s unexpected brush with relegation.
Quinn has warned fans not to expect
large numbers of new arrivals.
Sunderland’s chairman
believes it will be the character of the players, as much as their
talent, which will determine whether they are signed by Bruce.
“We’re not going to drastically overhaul the squad,” said Quinn, who is
delighted at the way his relationship with Bruce has blossomed.
“We’ve got some lovely footballers at the club and Steve recognises that.
“The day he was appointed, even before that, we said what we wanted and
that’s someone who could put a couple of men in there amongst good
players.
“Steve gets that, gets what we need and understands it more than most people. We’re on the same wavelength in terms of the type of player we need.
“I’ll not interfere once I know it’s that type of player who wants to
come and give a performance week in, week out that the people will
applaud.
“Steve knows that more than anyone. He knows the type of character we
need to play in front of what can be a brilliant crowd, or a tough
crowd and you need to be a man to get through it.”
Quinn said: “We haven’t give up on any of our targets, but nor have we thrown our cards on the table to show our hand either.
“Steve has a few players that we’d love to have, but he’s very
insistent on having a good look at what we have – and he’s probably
right.
“We’ve maybe got some players who weren’t able to do well under a
previous manager who might come alive, and suddenly you’ve got an asset
you didn’t realise you had.
“Rather than just trading for the sake of it, let’s try and be intelligent and smart. We know what we need and where we need it.
“It’s pretty obvious that Djibril (Cisse) has gone and that we need a centre-forward. That doesn’t take a lot to work out.
“There are areas where we have to do something, but there’ll be an opportunity for others too.”
Quinn believes top players will be more tempted to move
to the North East, in this the Black Cats third consecutive year in the Premier League.
He added: “I think the third year in, people are seeing us as a better option than they did in the first year.
“Then it was ‘ooh, we want to see some evidence’.
“The second year, yes, we brought players in and looking back, we may
have bought too many and maybe it upset the dressing room a little bit,
but we did get some good ones.
“There’s some fabulous talent in there and if we can harness it with a
couple of steely characters coming in there, it’ll give us a chance.
“Our manager gets what we’re about, which is the most pleasing thing for me
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:07:03:10:01:04 by Steve.
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