Sunderland release seven players including talisman defender

Readers, sit down before you take this news in. Be ready to grieve to your heart's content and reminisce about good times. Are you ready? Okay, here goes. Titus Bramble is one of seven players to have been released by Sunderland. I told you it was bad... The 31-year-old is now on the scrap heap and may be forced to drop out of the English topflight to find a club suited to his ability.

The Albanian ninth division?

The former Wigan, Newcastle, Colchester and Ipswich defender has lit up our TV screens with his calamitous performances down the years and his ability to mystify just how bad a Premier League player can actually be.

And to think he made 10 England U21 appearances. Imagine, god forbid, he had made the jump to the senior side.

 Paolo Di Canio has obviously had enough of Sunderland fighting at the bottom and being a laughing stock and is clearing the circus of the clowns and the unnecessary baggage that the club currently hold.

Matthew Kilgallon, Ryan Noble, Adam Reed, Anthony Callghan, Wade Joyce and Ben Wilson were also released, while Danny Rose will return to Tottenham after his loan spell at the Stadium of Light.