Sent on loan to Watford in January to get away from Sunderland and the Championship, Didier Ndong didn’t really feature at Vicarage Road under Javi Gracia.
The 23-year-old appeared just three times on the Hornets’ bench during the second half of the season but never even set foot on a Premier League pitch.
The Gabon international will now be returning to the Black Cats come the end of May, as it seems unlikely Watford will make the deal permanent anytime soon.
This means the now League One club will have to find a way to get rid of the former Lorient star off in order to lower their wage budget ahead of a long season in England’s third-tier.
According to Foot Mercato in France on their live blog, they might find the solution to their problem in Italy, as the defensive midfielder is said to have already had a few contacts with clubs there and he ‘won’t be staying’ at the Stadium of Light.
How much Sunderland will ask for their record signing (£18m) remains to be seen, but after his unfortunate past few months, they certainly won’t be getting all of their money back.
They’d be lucky to even see half of their investment again.
