Sunderland are being strongly linked with Liam Rosenior, after missing out on Will Still.
Sunderland are set for further talks with Liam Rosenior after the Black Cats missed out on long-term target Will Still, who’s taken charge of RC Lens.
Former Hull City boss Rosenior will add Championship experience to the side after achieving a commendable 7th place finish with the Tigers last season.
But after an arduous search process, Rosenior may receive mixed reviews from fans who were expecting an unknown, like Still, to come in.
It’ll leave Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and sporting director Kristjaan Speakman with a huge summer, with signings arguably needed to show fans that the club is serious about challenging for the Premier League.
And a more experienced head like Rosenior arriving may help on that front; he was able to attract youngsters from Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and more during his tenure at Hull City.
Rosenior is also a huge fan of one striker who’s previously been on Sunderland’s radar; Leicester City youngster Tom Cannon.
Sunderland previously linked with Tom Cannon
Sunderland were linked with a loan move for Cannon when he was at Everton last summer, before Leicester City beat off the competition with a £7.5million permanent deal.
The 21-year-old, who is set to make his international debut for Republic of Ireland this week, made his name with Preston North End.
On loan from Everton in the second half of the 2022/23 campaign, Cannon scored eight in 20 Championship games, but would only score twice in 13 for Leicester City last season.
Injury kept him out for much of the campaign, and following the Foxes’ promotion to the Premier League, there’s inevitable question marks about his future.
Following a 0-0 draw between Preston North End and Hull City in 2023, Rosenior stated his admiration of Cannon.
Rosenior said: “I thought Tom Cannon was outstanding, one of the best we’ve played against by far,” and with Cannon someone known to Speakman, a Sunderland loan swoop for Cannon this summer could make a lot of sense.
Will Leicester City loan out Tom Cannon this summer
There were reports last month that Cannon was wanted on loan in the Championship, and given Leicester City’s promotion, Cannon returning to the second tier makes sense.
He’s still very inexperienced and coming off the back of a difficult season, so he’ll need to be somewhere where he’s playing regularly next season.
And even though Leicester face some difficulties in their attacking ranks, with FFP limitations and certain players out of contract, the idea of Cannon getting much game time next season seems far-fetched, given his lack of game-time last season.
With Rosenior and Speakman both fans of Cannon, and with Sunderland once again needing attacking reinforcements this summer, a loan move for Cannon would certainly make sense.
Divin Mubama’s situation at West Ham is still unclear and Sunderland may have to go to tribunal to get a deal for the striker over the line.
So that could add to the possibility of Sunderland making a loan swoop. But the Black Cats need to formalise a new manager before anything can really happen in the transfer market.