Moyes Short and to the point
DAVID MOYES could not have created more of a stir had he appeared wearing a black and white scarf following Sunderland’s 2-1 defeat by Middlesbrough.
Asked for a tub-thumping message to worried fans fearing yet another fight for Premier League survival, Sunderland’s manager did the exact opposite, admitting he shared their concerns.
“They’re probably right,” he said. “I don’t think you can hide the facts. That will be the case.”
To add to that shocking and brutal assessment of a side he has only just taken charge of, Moyes claims there will be no quick fixes, no magic wands, no dramatic changes under his management.
Brace yourselves for a fifth successive relegation scrap, he told fans – hardly the rabblerousing soundbite expected from a newly appointed manager and certainly not the one many Sunderland fans wanted to hear, even if they share his misgivings about the wafer-thin squad at his disposal.
But this was not a simple case of Moyes betraying his pessimism and allowing his frustrations at a second straight defeat to spill over. He is too canny for that. Moyes delivered a sobering assessment after the home loss to Boro that followed their opening-day defeat by Manchester City for two reasons.
First, he wants to be seen as a realist, someone who will tell it as it is so as not to raise expectations – not that the Mackem faithful have any just now.
But above all, his cut-to-thechase response was effectively a plea to club owner and chairman Ellis Short to release substantial funds so he can strengthen an inadequate squad lacking both depth and quality. Moyes has a £3million bid in for Barnsley centre-half Alfie Mawson and the club still want to sign last term’s loanee Yann M’Vila on a permanent basis from Rubin Kazan.
But Moyes knows to land his top targets like Everton’s James McCarthy, Atletico Madrid full-back Javier Manquillo and a striker to compete with Jermain Defoe, the owner must loosen the purse strings.
By going public with his doom-laden prediction, the former Everton, Manchester United and Real Sociedad manager can hardly be accused of underestimating the size of the task he faces. And Short cannot claim he was left in the dark.
Sunderland are used to not winning in August – their last league win in the month was six years ago – but goalkeeper Vito Mannone says they cannot carry on playing their annual game of catch-up. “We need to WEST HAM are ready to offer Wilfried Bony an escape route from his Manchester City nightmare.
Hammers boss Slaven Bilic needs a striker after losing Andrew Ayew and Andy Carroll to long-term injuries and Bony has been told he is not wanted at City.
A possible hitch is that City want a sale to recoup some of their £150 million summer outlay but the Hammers are likely to want a loan deal for a striker who has received offers to play in China.
Bilic said: “We’re going to try to get a striker. We want a good one and Bony is a good player. The chairman is going to be very generous.” THE FA will look into the homophobic tweets Burnley striker Andre Gray posted four years ago after they were shared across social media on the weekend he scored his first Premier League goal. Gray, who scored for the Clarets in a 2-0 victory over Liverpool at Turf Moor, apologised in a statement on Saturday night and asked for forgiveness. One of his messages read: “Is it me or are there gays everywhere? #Burn #Die #Makesmesick.” BONY bounce back straight away,” he said.
“We know from past experiences we don’t have time. The only thing we can do is work together, follow the manager.
“In the City game, we saw good things; in this game in the second half, you saw good things, so the only thing you need to do is do well for yourself and for this team and for the club.”
Sunderland host Shrewsbury tomorrow night in the trophy and the debate centres around what would be the bigger shock – Shrewsbury winning or Sunderland.
Mannone said: “It is an important competition. It builds your confidence, it gives games to most of the boys in the team and, if you do well, you do well in the league.
“We need to treat it like this, as a competitive game, as a league game, because we need to win on Wednesday if we want to win on Saturday.
“You can’t do badly Wednesday and do perfectly on Saturday.” JOSE MOURINHO has continued his clear-out of Manchester United’s fringe players.
He has sanctioned loan moves for James Wilson to Derby, Cameron BorthwickJackson to Wolves, while Tyler Blackett has moved to Reading on a three-year deal.
It follows the joint sale of Paddy McNair and Donald Love to Sunderland, Adnan Januzaj’s loan to the same club and Guillermo Varela’s loan to Eintracht Frankfurt. Andreas Pereira and Will Keane on are also likely to go out on loan before the transfer window closes with Mourinho working on trimming around 10 players from his squad. DERBY have been dealt an injury blow with the news that defender Craig Forsyth has ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and is set for another lengthy absence.
Forsyth, 27, suffered the injury during the goalless draw with Aston Villa at the iPro Stadium on Saturday and it is the Scotland international’s second serious knee injury in the space of 10 months. The same injury forced the left-back to miss a large part of last season. WILSON