Martin O’Neill, the Sunderland manager, has revealed that Papiss Demba Cisse was never a Black Cats target and Newcastle United did not beat them to sign the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Senegal-c3001 striker.
It was initially thought the Black Cats were interested in the 26-year-old striker but Newcastle United recently announced his signature on Tuesday. The Magpies secure the Freiburg front-man in January transfer window as they look to resume the second half
of the season.
Newcastle United are currently at sixth place on the Premier League table, having done surprisingly well in this season. Sunderland on the other hand had a poor start to the term under Steve Bruce but look to be improving under new boss Martin O’Neill.
The Northern Irish manager revealed he was never interested in signing Cisse in the winter transfer window and that the player had not snubbed the Black Cats. He confirmed that while he was an admirer of the striker, his side had not made an attempt for
him.
Cisse signed for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/SC-Freiburg-c40462 in the January transfer window of 2009 from FC Metz, going on to score six goals that season. In his first full season at the club, the talented striker went to score 24 goals in 34 appearances in all competitions.
O’Neill revealed in an interview:
“News was filtering through here that he had turned us down - I'm afraid we hadn't made any enquires for the player at all. Good as he is, we hadn't done so.”
As for Newcastle United doing better than Sunderland this season, O’Neill revealed he was not too concerned with the neighbours. The Black Cats wanted to focus all his energies on leading his side to the top half of the table, having previously been involved
in the relegation battle.
He continued:
“Newcastle are doing brilliantly and of course, that might not please every Sunderland fan - it might not please any of them - but we can't do anything about it at the moment.
We have to look after ourselves, and we will try to do that as best we can in the next couple of months.”
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