So news reports out of mother Russia that the deal that broke down between Sunderland and defender Nicolas Lombaerts could be back on.
Originally the deal seemed to be set in stone, but from what seemed to be out of nowhere a report that the Belgian International had been to Wearside and had failed the Sunderland medical, which ended interest. This was a bit of a surprise considering the player had played the majority of his current club Zenit’s fixtures, in the past season.
This was then rubbished by Lombaerts himself, saying that people had made that story up, and that the U-turn was because he wanted to stay in Russia and finish his career with his current club.
This is where is gets a bit complicated – An Italian journalist, Gianluca Di Marzio claims to have news from a Russian source that the deal could well be back on.
Sunderland boss Dick Advocaat is said to be still massively keen on signing the defender, but couldn’t be at the meeting with the player, as he was in America with the 1st team pre-season tour.
It’s also said that the real reason that the player didn’t sign was over money, transfer fee’s and player wages, this has led to Sunderland chairman Ellis Short meeting up with Advocaat this week to discuss further transfers.