Extension allows Black Cats to sign Davenport

Feb 3 2009 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

AFTER 33 days of trying, Sunderland had to go beyond yesterday’s 5pm transfer deadline to get the second defender manager Ricky Sbragia was desperately seeking.

Centre-back Calum Davenport joined Tal Ben-Haim in bolstering the Black Cats boss’ back-line options after English clubs were given permission to bend the recruitment rules. Michael Chopra left for a third spell at Cardiff City and attempts to replace him with Tottenham Hotspur striker Darren Bent came to nothing.

The snow which fell yesterday caused the Fifa rule book to be thrown out of the transfer window. Having already put the deadline for deals back to 5pm on Monday to avoid having to open their offices on a weekend, the Football Association then persuaded the world’s governing body to allow a further extension in the event of weather-influenced delays. It was that which allowed the Black Cats to tie up Davenport’s arrival on loan until the end of the season last night.

The 6ft 4in defender was highly rated as a youngster, but Sunderland will be his seventh English club having only just turned 26.

Davenport started his career at Coventry City and was added to Tottenham’s stable of promising young English talent. But he failed to convince at White Hart Lane and was loaned to Norwich City, Southampton and West Ham, who he would later join permanently for £3m. He also had a solitary game on loan at Championship side Watford.

Davenport has started only eight games this season, scoring once. But he has the advantage of having played alongside fellow Sunderland defenders Anton Ferdinand and George McCartney, both of whom were at Upton Park with him last season, plus Sunderland’s four former Tottenham players.

Bolton Wanderers agreed to pay £3m for the Bedford-born stopper earlier this month, only to switch their attention to Zenit St Petersburg’s Sébastien Puygrenier.

“Sunderland is a massive club and I’m really looking forward to playing a big part for them in the vital run-in to the end of the season,” Davenport told his new club’s official website.

“I know quite a few of the lads already. I’ve played with Anton, George, Reidy (Andy Reid), Steed (Malbranque), Teemu (Tainio) and Márton (Fülöp), so I’m quite sure that will help me settle in quickly.”

Much of Sunderland’s transfer business this month will have come as a surprise to those who took Sbragia at his word.

He was adamant in public throughout January that Pascal Chimbonda and El-Hadji Diouf were not for sale right up to the point when they joined Tottenham and Blackburn Rovers respectively. And on Sunday evening he laughed off suggestions that Chopra might rejoin Cardiff on loan.

The former Newcastle United man did just that, with the Bluebirds having the option of making the deal permanent in the summer for a fee of up to £4m.

The Scot also denied any interest in Davenport, Bent, or central defender Ben-Haim, who joined on a six-month loan from Manchester City at the weekend.

Chopra joined Cardiff on a free transfer from Newcastle United in the summer of 2006. After 22 goals in his debut season, he was sold on to the Stadium of Light for £5m. He was soon back, though, in a loan move in November.

Sbragia recalled him in January and he appeared to have a part to play on Wearside, particularly when the manager insisted as much. It was Chopra, and not fellow substitute David Healy, who Sbragia turned to when Djibril Cissé limped off injured at St James’s Park on Sunday.

In all, the 25-year-old scored eight goals in 41 appearances, a respectable ratio for a player often used out of position in midfield by Roy Keane.

He marked his Black Cats debut in dramatic fashion, scoring the winning goal against Tottenham as a substitute in the opening game of last season.