Agents had better Coton on fast that ‘sweet shop’ is now closed on Wearside
RECRUITMENT CHIEF BUSY ALREADY
TONY Coton has warned the Sunderland “sweet shop” is closed after being bombarded with calls from agents looking to make a fast buck out of the Black Cats.
Coton is the new head of recruitment at a club which, off the field at least, has been completely revamped in a matter of weeks.
His job will be to help provide the accompanying on-field overhaul badly needed after back-to-back relegations.
A litany of bad decisions saw the Wearsiders run up debts of around £125m under previous owner Ellis Short until he wiped them out to sell the club to Stewart Donald.
The new man is determined not to go down the same route – and Coton is certainly in tune with the new mindset.
He said: “I’ve only been in the role three days and my phone has never stopped.
“What the agents need to realise, though, is Sunderland is no longer the sweet shop it has been.
“We’re in League One and we have to cut our cloth accordingly. People have to realise that.”
Donald’s right-hand man, executive director Charlie Methven, memorably warned on his first day in the job “the p***-take party is over.”
However, it would seem not everyone out there has got the message yet.
Sunderland have batted off a number of bids for their players, determined not to sell any for less than their valuation.
With the debt burden now lifted (though they still owe £25m this summer in legacy payments on past transfers), Donald says they are now in a position to hold out for the right price.
Bids of £2m for Paddy McNair and £2.6m for Didier Ndong, for example, were laughed off.
Brighton and Hove Albion were thought to have come back with £3.75m for the former, only to be told to go away and come up with something more realistic, while Torino improved their offer for Ndong to £6.6m, which was accepted.
But the deal appears to have collapsed over the Gabonese midfielder’s personal terms.
That a League One player should be out of the financial reach of a tophalf Serie A club even after his pay was cut by 40% last summer gives an indication of what generous payers Sunderland (and the Premier League as a whole) have been.
Dijon have ruled out making centre-back Papy Djilobodji’s season-loan loan permanent because the Black Cats were paying two-thirds of his £32,000 wages last season, while World Cup-bound playmaker Wahbi Khazri’s £37,000 weekly wage is thought to have stopped Rennes exercising a £6m option to make his loan permanent.
Largesse like that has earned Sunderland a reputation in the football world but Coton is determined the new regime will shake it off.
He added: “I’ve had agents ring me up putting the names of good players to me, but once they’ve told me what sort of money these players are looking for I’ve had to stop the conversation because we’re not going anywhere near that.
“The financial implications of where this club has been means we have to operate differently now.
“We’re shopping in a different supermarket. We’re not shopping in Harrods any more.”
Sunderland have until 5pm on August 4 to buy players this summer, although they will be able to arrange loans for the rest of the month.