Sunderland were almost bullied into letting Adil Aouchiche leave in the January transfer window, with Schalke taking advantage of the Black Cats.
That’s at least according to Sport BILD. The German newspaper covers the 23-year-old today and how Sunderland were almost forced into letting him go.
The newspaper explains that Schalke’s winter business is currently impressing across the board. Edin Dzeko has been the star signing so far, still performing at 39 and creating a buzz rarely seen at Schalke in recent years.
But Aouchiche has impressed too after arriving from Sunderland. And Schalke are very happy with the deal that they got for him.
Sport BILD explain that Schalke were only able to get him thanks to the knowledge of their new head of transfers and scouting Maximilian Lüftl. He was aware of Aouchiche, who was on loan at Aberdeen at this point.
Sunderland desperation
Lüftl knew that Aberdeen’s new manager Peter Leven was unlikely to have a place for the youngster. He also knew that Sunderland ‘desperately’ needed to free a loan spot.
They needed to terminate a loan prematurely as the rules only allow clubs to loan out a maximum of six players who weren’t developed at their own club. Sunderland had reached that limit.
Thus, Schalke got in touch. Sunderland initially wanted €1m but the Germans refused to pay.
Sunderland wanted €1m
They were banking on Sunderland’s desperation and the fact Aouchiche was sick of loan deals. He wanted to leave the Stadium of Light permanently and ‘find a new home’.
That trick paid off. After a ‘short period of consideration’, Sunderland relented. The Black Cats agreed and Aouchiche terminated his deal with them. He then signed with Schalke and has been impressing since.
The German side are more than happy with the deal they got too. So much so, it’s now being praised by SportBILD, who are clearly doing a bit of German transfer PR for them.
