Counting cost of transfer turmoil
CATS PAYING £30K A WEEK TO FRENCH CLUBS IN WAGES
THE cost of Sunderland’s failure to sell Wahbi Khazri and Papy Djilobodji in the summer has been laid bare by French sports newspaper L’Equipe.
The Black Cats wanted to sell the pair and a host of others after relegation from the Premier League.
But a lack of buyers meant goalkeepers Jordan Pickford (£30m) and Vito Mannone (£2m) were the only players among the 12 allowed to leave who they received a transfer fee for.
The rest were either released or, like Khazri and Djilobodji, loaned out. The pair moved to Ligue 1 on August’s deadline day.
L’Equipe have published a detailed study of wages in the division. They claim Sunderland are paying £35,500 of Khazri’s £160,000 monthly wages before tax in his season at Rennes.
There was reported interest in Khazri in January, but having played for two clubs already this term, he would not have been allowed to move on until the summer.
They also claim the Black Cats are paying the majority of Djilobodji’s wages at Dijon. He is reported to be on £142,000 a month there, of which they say £89,000 is coming from the Stadium of Light.
Djilobodji was an £8m signing for David Moyes (pictured), while Khazri joined under Sam Allardyce for around £9m. Neither started a Championship game under Simon Grayson, and both became fringe figures under his predecessor Moyes.
The pair are one of a host of high-profile players out on loan this season. English wages make it difficult to move top-earning players on, particularly if they are to move abroad. The size of the Premier League’s broadcasting deals puts many of their players out of the reach of other leagues, which is why Sunderland found it so difficult to move many on in the last two transfer windows. Jeremain Lens is on loan at Besiktas, while Fabio Borini is at AC Milan until the end of the season. Didier Ndong moved to Watford on loan in January. As with all the loans, there is an option for them to be made permanent in the summer. In Ndong’s case it will be triggered when he fulfils certain criteria, likely to be appearance-based. When they made the August deals, Sunderland were confident the Lens and Borini options would be made permanent.
The Wearsiders were hoping to sell at least one of their big earners in January to give manager Chris Coleman the funds to buy players, but were unable to find any takers.
James Vaughan was sold to Wigan Athletic, but having bought him for £500,000 in the summer, the undisclosed figure is almost certainly lower than that, and was not made available to Coleman.
Lamine Kone went unsold, while Jack Rodwell declined an offer to cancel his £70,000-a-week contract, which runs until the end of next season, with a pay-off. They were able to agree a settlement with thirdchoice goalkeeper Mika.
Goalkeeper Jason Steele had been due to join Derby County on January deadline day, only for the deal to fall through when the Rams changed the terms in the final hour of trading.
Sunderland’s heavy debts are not helped by the fact they are still making instalment payments on a number of past transfers, most of them notably unsuccessful, and the £29,000 L’Equipe say they are sending across the Channel each week – plus whatever subsidy they are paying to the wages of Lens, Borini and/ or Ndong were a big factor in restricting what Coleman was able to do last month.