The Black Cats were given a chance to speak to the left-footed Portsmouth player, who yesterday joined Bolton Wanderers.

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And though the player himself said it was a very difficult decision for him to turn Sunderland down, Roy Keane was convinced very quickly that the player's heart was not in the move.

He said: "I knew within 10 seconds that he wasn't a Sunderland player and wouldn't be coming to the club. I'm not disappointed by it in the slightest.

"We spoke to him and now we move on."

Taylor is one of the very few players that Sunderland HAVE been interested in in the January transfer window.

And the manager has grown increasingly frustrated at the speculative stories which circulate at this time of year.

He said: "We were interested in Matt Taylor but some of the other stuff that goes round, I've got no idea where it comes from.

"This whole Steve Sidwell stuff – I've no idea where that came from but there was nothing in it and it annoys me when stories circulate that aren't the case, because they are misleading."

The Sunderland manager also told the Echo that there was no basis in truth in a variety of other stories and siad that links to Robbie Keane which seem to emerge every transfer window are all spurious.

Nor is it the case that Sunderland have shown any interest in Birmingham midfielder Olivier Kapo.

Sunderland were offered former Real Betis utility player Johann Vogel but Keane was not interested.

He said: "He was a player who was brought to our attention but if I showed you a list of players who were brought to our attention in any given week you'd be surprised how long the list would be.

"We are still looking at strengthening the side but stories of players turning us down left, right and centre simply aren't the case.

"Leighton Baines and David Nugent were two players we talked to last summer who didn't come here and now Matt Taylor, in this transfer window we've talked to and he's not coming, but apart from that we haven't had players turning us down.

"We continue to work in the transfer market but it's very simple, when we get close to signing a player, then we will let people know."