Transfer news: Sunderland defender could leave on loan as Championship club make move
Aji Alese has strong interest from the Championship as the transfer deadline nears
Aji Alese could leave Sunderland on loan before the transfer deadline, with Championship side Portsmouth weighing up a move.
John Mousinho’s side are currently carrying a number of defensive injuries and are on the look out for defensive reinforcements. Alese, a centre back who has also played at left back since joining Sunderland from West Ham on a number of occasions, is seen as a very strong option.
Though Alese is yet to make a competitive appearance for Sunderland this season due to the major injury he suffered in an FA Cup defeat to Stoke City a year ago, he has been back in training for a while and has made two appearances for the club’s U21 side in recent weeks. He should therefore be ready to go and compete for a place at Championship level if the move does indeed materialise.
Though Sunderland rate Alese highly, there is an acceptance that it will be very difficult for him to break into what is a fiercely competitive area of the pitch at the moment. It’s thought that Sunderland are open to a loan move that could allow Alese to play regularly and rebuild his match confidence between now and the end of the campaign, before the situation can be reassessed in the summer. The 25-year-old currently has 18 months to ruin on his Sunderland contract.
Speaking in a press conference on Wednesday, Mousinho confirmed that his side were close to making additions though it’s not at this stage clear whether that refers to Alese.
"We're close on at least one, Mousinho said.
“Hopefully that will be tomorrow [Thursday], we're still monitoring the situation injury wise at the moment on a couple of bits but we feel the players that have come in so far have made a really solid impact. If we can have anything before the weekend then great but I think the most important thing is that we come out of the window and we feel stronger than we were going in.
"If we can keep adding and bolstering then it will be good for us. I'm pretty confident we can get the players we need, at the minute we have been patient with a few at the back end of the window that we are waiting on.
"It's felt like quite a slow window with not much activity but I suspect there will been the last week.”
The window closes at 7pm on Monday, February 2nd.
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Sunderland winger Chemsdine Talbi has given his reflections on his return to action after AFCON duty, urging the club to stick together and build on a much-improved second half at West Ham United.
“It was tough but we showed a better second half, we brought intensity that we needed to bring to the first half,” Talbi said.
“This is the Premier League, you will have bad moments so we need to stick together and fight again for victory in the next game. We needed to be better than the first half, it was not enough and everybody knows that. We knew in the second half we needed to bring intensity and we did that.It's the best league world so any little moment where you lose focus or intensity, you will pay for it. On Saturday we paid for it. So we need to stick together and keep fighting.I think we are still playing a great season, I don't think anyone thought we would get as high as we have. But it's still not finished, and so we need to continue.”
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