200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jocelin Ta Bi and Sunderland agree another 5 years.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Trai Hume falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by James Stewart to a room that had heard them before.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Omar Alderete signs something — a contract at Sunderland or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutMelker Ellborg asks for a word with the manager
0‑4 against Manchester City, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Malick Fofana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sunderland have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Sunderland close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Sunderland heard it as anything else.
The offer from Mladost Lucani for Ahmed Abdullahi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Luke O'Nien reports back to Sunderland with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Malick Fofana and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Wilson Isidor at his very best
20 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Bournemouth were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sunderland can pretend not to have heard.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Sunderland scored in the 95th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.92 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Omar Alderete and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sunderland people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Sunderland and Derby County have settled on $1.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The offer from Brondby for Melker Ellborg was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Malick Fofana did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The deal with Nottingham Forest is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Omar Alderete and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Sunderland training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malick Fofana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑7 to Arsenal, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sunderland can pretend not to have heard.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Doxa had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Sunderland asked and Derby County said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
18 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Successful dribbles: 32. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Omar Alderete was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Sunderland asked and Fulham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Ahmed Abdullahi has come up in conversations Sunderland were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
In brief
SquadTrai Hume falls out with a teammate over standards
Omar Alderete and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Malick Fofana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 6.82, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Marked 7.26 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Andrea Carrara has, at Sunderland, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Brian Brobbey had Sunderland level again within 2 minutes, and Crystal Palace never got to play with a lead at all.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Dan Ballard falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is 20, and nobody at Sunderland signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
It needed Brian Brobbey to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Crystal Palace, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Enzo Le Fée and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Peter Thomas is living that version at Sunderland, and it tends to show in the first month.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Wilson Isidor was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.60. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Fulham scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Sunderland training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Trai Hume is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Malick Fofana, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Malick Fofana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
José Fonte and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by James Stewart to a room that had heard them before.
0‑3 to Manchester United, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Omar Alderete and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Malick Fofana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Malick Fofana and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sunderland know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sunderland, and it is not being withdrawn.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sunderland know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Nottingham Forest? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sunderland this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Malick Fofana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nilson Angulo scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Tottenham, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by James Stewart to a room that had heard them before.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
Omar Alderete was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Trai Hume was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sunderland, and 8 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
1 for Trai Hume, marked 7.14, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Sunderland heard it as anything else.
Malick Fofana was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sunderland can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Chemsdine Talbi did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.26 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Enzo Le Fée was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Andrew Teuten has just signed for Sunderland, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Sunderland training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malick Fofana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sunderland can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Andrew Teuten has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
A point taken on 96 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Trai Hume was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Omar Alderete was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Lewis Campbell is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 James Stewart left the room before anybody could ask which.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sunderland. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Melker Ellborg is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Omar Alderete and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Malick Fofana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Yohan Bilingi has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Sunderland who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Sunderland had all but put away. Leeds United will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
0‑5 to Manchester City, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sunderland, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 26 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Trai Hume falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑5 defeat, delivered by James Stewart to a room that had heard them before.
Two goals and a mark of 8.80 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sunderland this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Newcastle United had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” James Stewart after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Malick Fofana signs something — a contract at Sunderland or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Sunderland is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
A brace, and Wilson Isidor takes the afternoon — 8.61
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Wilson Isidor provided it, and the 8.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Malick Fofana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Bournemouth scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sunderland, and 2 appearances in 1 say he has earned the hearing.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sunderland will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
$7.4M was the most the club would pay and Norwich City were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Wilson Isidor reports back to Sunderland with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Chemsdine Talbi did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 13 gone
That is the business done at Sunderland until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Malick Fofana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sunderland will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
$7.4M on the table at Norwich City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Sunderland have gone to Southampton with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$5.2M was the most the club would pay and Crystal Palace were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 27 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Peterborough United pay $2.3M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sunderland will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from OGC Nice for Nordi Mukiele was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sunderland can pretend not to have heard.
The name of Robin Roefs has come up in conversations Sunderland were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Sunderland asked and Southampton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sunderland this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Malick Fofana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sunderland will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
$48.5M was the most the club would pay and Arsenal were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Porto have kept their man, and Sunderland go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Omar Alderete was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
4 academy players handed senior numbers at Sunderland
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Timothy Edwards has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jonathan Hamilton has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sunderland will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cardiff City have kept their man, and Sunderland go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Sunderland heard it as anything else.
Sunderland have gone to Leicester City with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Swansea City is saying, and nobody at Sunderland is enjoying the guessing.
Robin Roefs and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Malick Fofana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sunderland will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer went to Arsenal this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$5.2M was the most the club would pay and Crystal Palace were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Sunderland hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Omar Alderete and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marcus Neill and Sunderland agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Malick Fofana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sunderland, another week without a signature from Marcus Neill.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Denis Bouanga is in the works
The dugoutOmar Alderete knocks on the manager’s door