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Sunderland’s Pierre Ekwah will return to the Stadium of Light, after spending last season on loan at AS Saint-Étienne. The French club have been relegated from Ligue 1 and haven’t exercised their purchase option to buy the 23-year-old.

On June 19th, Saint-Étienne manager Eirik Horneland publicly stated he wants to buy the midfielder. It was also indicated a solution could be reached shortly with Sunderland, but that didn’t happen.

Since then, claims elsewhere have stated Saint-Étienne reached an agreement with the Black Cats. Evect En Vert Et Contre Tous, a website focusing its coverage on the French club, dismiss this.

They now state this case has ‘dragged on’ because Ekwah’s entourage are waiting to find out what other options are available for him. The Sunderland player amassed 30 games for Saint-Étienne last season and impressed their manager.

Horneland has doubled down on his desire to bring Ekwah back, and his latest comments have been relayed.

“I have no news on Léo Pétrot [contract with Saint-Étienne expired on June 30th] and Pierre Ekwah. My ambition as coach remains the same: to keep them. They showed good potential last season,” he said.

“Ekwah had a great season in midfield in Ligue 1, which certainly gives him ambition. Léo Pétrot developed a lot during the season, which certainly also gave him ambition. We’ll see if we can keep them at Saint-Étienne. We should know more in the next few days.”