No sale at Sunderland

Martin O’Neill has enjoyed a good time of it since arriving in the North East to take over the Black Cats of Sunderland, and he has made it perfectly clear he wants the good times to continue as he refuses to contemplate the idea of losing his stars.

Sky Sports have reported O’Neill as telling the Sunderland Echo that he does not want to go down the route of selling his players, most notably the apparently unsettled Stephen Sessegnon who has attracted interest from Arsenal and Paris St Germain, according to the Daily Mail.

O’Neill has told the Echo that his vision for this summer is one of progression and not regression, and will sit down with his chairman Ellis Short to talk transfer targets at the Stadium of Light, whilst bordering up the exit door to stop the vultures prizing his assets away.

Another player on the list of interested clubs could be 22 year old winger James McClean who has emerged impressively into the Sunderland first team under O’Neill and a possible call up to the Republic of Ireland squad for this summer’s European Championships could have more affluent teams falling over themselves to make an offer.

The enthusiastic Irish manager is determined to resist any such advances however, saying the way to move forward is not to sell the best players. He believes he will see the financial support from his chairman to allow him to say a firm “No!” to advances.

One player who could be escaping the North East however is Egyptian Ahmed El Mohamady, with the Northern Echo saying he is ready to re-evaluate his options.

Flavour of the month under Steve Bruce, £2.25 million signing El Mohamady has not seen much love from O’Neill as he has made just one start since the change in manager.

The midfielder told the Northern Echo he is willing to fight for his spot, but could be ready to leave if a first-team role is not assured, with remaining in sunny old blighty a possibility.

@AdamGray1250

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