Ricky Sbragia will not panic buy players in the summer

Apr 8 2009 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

RICKY Sbragia may have admitted this week he is desperate to add “talent” to a Sunderland squad sorely lacking it, but the Black Cats manager will not be panicked into signing anyone he has not watched in person.

Although the Scot was scouting players during the recent international break, his spending plans have had to be put on ice until Sunderland know which division they will be in next season.

And Sbragia is surprised some of the club’s relegation rivals are not taking the same approach. The Wearsiders have been offered a host of players in recent weeks who will be way out of their reach unless they can muster the points to keep them in the top flight next season.

Black Cats manager Sbragia finds the situation laughable – the more so because those doing the offering are in a similar position. “We are taking phone calls left, right and centre from agents about players at clubs in the same situation as us,” he revealed.

“I can’t quite fathom that one out.

“Clubs are saying they’ve got players available, would we like them in the summer, and I’m thinking, ‘Hold on, they’re in the same situation as us.’ I find that strange, I can’t quite work that one out.

“But it won’t happen at our club – if it was, I think I’d get to hear.

We’ve got to stay in the Premiership, we know that. We’ve got to get up the table and get points.”

Sbragia has been scathing in his criticism of the squad he inherited from former boss Roy Keane.

He said: “I feel at the moment we have maybe 13 or 14 players that I would call genuine Premier League players, players who look comfortable at and deserve to be at that level.

“Ideally, we want that number to be up towards the 20 mark.”

With that in mind he was in Europe last week watching potential recruits, some identified 18 months earlier. “They were recommendations from (club scouts) Mick Brown and Ian Atkins from the Christmas window,” said Sbragia of the individuals he scrutinised.

“They recommended about four or five so we thought we’d take one in and see what they were like.

“On the Wednesday, I’d seen a team play five weeks ago and I thought I wouldn’t get the chance to see them again. Sometimes it’s just taking the team in, not one individual.

“There were reports that I was in Cardiff looking at a Cardiff player (Joe Ledley) but far from it, to be honest.

“Sometimes I’m just going to watch a team I’ll never see again to see what they’ve got, what’s available.”

Many is the manager to have signed a player on the back of a video sympathetically put together by his agent, only to regret it later.

It is a trap the Black Cats manager is determined not to fall into. “I don’t ever want to sign a player blind, I would never do that,” he insisted.

“We’ve had recommendations from the last 18 months who I’ve seen six or seven times. That’s the idea of it.

“But we have to be realistic about what we’ll be able to get. But there won’t be a situation where there’s a player we can get and I’ve never seen him, even if he’s out of our market fee-wise. I have to try.”

Goalkeeper Craig Gordon has urged his team-mates to be positive about the task facing them when they host Manchester United on Saturday.

The champions were in formidable form earlier in the campaign, but have started to show chinks in their armour lately.

“Man United are in a close race for the title and they will be nervous,” said the Scot. “If they are not 100% on their game, we have to pounce.”