Player out of training – Waiting for Sunderland to agree deal to sign him

A few days ago we covered the difficult situation between SM Caen, Sunderland and Alexandre Mendy.

The transfer story had started off far better than they normally do. Mendy, Ligue 2’s top scorer last season, went public to say he’d chosen to join Sunderland.

He didn’t want to go to Saudi Arabia, had been influenced by watching every series of Sunderland ‘Til I Die, was happy to work with Regis Le Bris, and couldn’t wait to travel to England with his family when given the green light for a medical.

Such comments are so unusual that it felt like a deal must surely be close, however, it soon became clear that wasn’t the case at all.

Caen had been hoping to get €5m for the striker, but Sunderland’s offer was less than €1m and nobody else has shown any signs of improving on it.

The offers from Saudi were less.

Monday’s edition of Ouest France reports Mendy is out of group training. It actually says he doesn’t want to train but earlier reports made it clear it was, initially at least, a decision the club and player had made together.

He’s waiting for Sunderland to agree a deal for him.