Sunderland recently learned that Amad Diallo would be staying at Manchester United this summer. And now the Black Cats have discovered the same fate for another January target.
It’s not been a good January transfer window so far for Sunderland.
Nobody has signed on the dotted line as of yet, though it looks like Callum Styles could be the first of a late flurry of arrivals at the Stadium of Light.
It appears that he’s closing in on a loan move from Barnsley with a view to make the move permanent in the summer, but one player who won’t be joining Sunderland this month is Jay Stansfield.
Birmingham City confirm Jay Stansfield stay
There’s been a lot of speculation about Fulham striker Stansfield, who joined Birmingham City on loan in the summer.
Tony Mowbray wanted him at Sunderland before this season but he opted for a move to St Andrew’s, where under Wayne Rooney his form dipped.
But Mowbray’s arrival at Birmingham City has brought an upturn in form and that’s seemingly prompted Fulham to let Stansfield stay there for the remainder of the season, despite links to both Sunderland and Ipswich Town this month.
Birmingham City confirmed the news on X this afternoon:
Another one bites the dust for Sunderland and Michael Beale
It’s been a bad week in the transfer market for Sunderland; disregarding the seemingly imminent arrival of Styles of course.
First it was revealed that the Black Cats are now unlikely to sign Kieffer Moore from Bournemouth this month, before it was then confirmed that Diallo would be staying at Manchester United.
And now the news of Stansfield really rubs salt in the wounds at Sunderland, who remain in desperate need of a new striker.
Styles looks set to fill the left-back berth which has become very thin on the ground and so the main and only focus for Michael Beale this next week should be a striker.
He’ll have to hope that Kristjaan Speakman has a trick up his sleeve; Beale won’t want the club to sign another unknown quantity from Europe, who come in and fail to hit the ground running.
Sunderland and Beale need goals now, or they run the risk of plummeting down the Championship table in the second half of this season.
Up next for the Black Cats is a home game against Stoke City this weekend; a win here could lift Sunderland back into the top six depending on goal difference, with only three fixtures in the Championship this weekend.