MARTIN O’Neill was unimpressed with several reports yesterday linking him with three of his former players at Aston Villa.
If the manager had not been so pre-occupied with preparations for today’s game against Manchester City, he might have bothered himself to be irritated!
Gabriel Agbonlahor, Richard Dunne and Carlos Cuellar at Villa Park were all the subject of stories claiming the Sunderland manager was plotting to bring them to the Stadium of Light.
But he insists no moves or approaches have been made and that he has yet to consider what players he will look to bring in for the start of next season.
He told the Echo: “I’ve been made aware of the stories and there’s not much I can do if the media want to run with stories like that but these things are pure speculation.
“It’s easy to see how these stories can be made to look plausible.
“You look at Cuellar and he’s out of contract this summer so he’s seen as fair game.
“Gabriel Agbonlahor played a lot under me and Dunne is a player I bought for Aston Villa.
“You can see where they’re coming from but all this sort of stuff is in the realms of pure speculation.
“The only thing that’s slightly annoying is that you get linked with everybody and if you get linked with enough people then sooner or later one’s going to be right. Then it’s often the people who have got the most wrong who come claiming how they got the exclusive story!
“At this moment in time we’re not working on signing any players.”
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