Sunderland’s great start to the season appears to have been a whim after losing to Burnley in the Premier League and being knocked out of the League Cup by Huddersfield on a penalty. However, Regis Le Bri spoke through BBC Sports about some of the positives he stole from Tuesday’s defeat.
“We wanted to win, so we’re disappointed. Huddersfield played with passion and scored a great goal in the first half. We weren’t at our best in the first half and we struggled to find the rhythm, but we got a lot better in the second half.
Le Bliss also spoke about the importance of making his debut as part of his new defender.
Against Huddersfield, Le Bliss played Masak and Mukiere at centreback despite both playing most of his career as a fullback – he may not need to use a makeshift centreback that long as Sunderland placed his second bid on one of his top targets.
Sunderland raises an offer to Rukumi
Sunderland is making his second bid for Bologna centre back John Rukumi. This new bid is worth £24 million and is a 10% sale clause. The report comes from Fabrizio Romano, who says Bologna will still be keeping him while Sunderland considers Colombians as “priority target targets.”
Early in the window, Rukumi had a release clause worth £24 million, but the black cat didn’t cause this before it expired, but the initial bid rejected £21.5 million.
Before his second bid, Italian journalist Matteo Dara Vite spoke about Bologna’s stance on a potential transfer.
“The situation over the past few weeks is odd that Sunderland pushes and players pushes, but the English side hasn’t been heard since a month. If they were convinced, why didn’t they exercise the release clause?
Bologna reluctant to sell with a new contract
The Bologna attitude in this window means they prefer to maintain the lukumi. They are about to negotiate a new contract with Colombians whose current contract expires in the summer of 2027. Rukumi’s current contract is said to exceed just £13,000 a week.
One of the main reasons why Bologna are so desperate to keep up with Lukumi is that they are already selling centre back Sam Beukema to Naples this summer. Bologna doesn’t want to be left shorthand, but does not allow trade in valuable assets to drip over the last few years.
The new contracts were difficult for them to negotiate, leading to reports that a higher bid would reconsider their stance. It is still unclear whether this new bid at the low end of the reported target is satisfactory.
