Cats duo could be reunited with Roy

Jul 9 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

But Ipswich harbour ambitions of recreating Sunderland’s Keane-inspired surge up the Championship, and Whitehead may be enticed by that prospect.

Certainly, the midfielder’s time on Wearside appears to be drawing to a close. As revealed by The Journal last month, Whitehead was edging towards the exit door in the January transfer window before Niall Quinn and Ricky Sbragia persuaded him to stay.

All parties agreed to assess the situation again in the summer but it does not appear that he has changed his mind.

Keane’s comments after Ipswich’s pre-season clash with Finn Harps are open to interpretation, but he did appear to suggest that the two targets are currently residing on Wearside.

“We have agreed a price with two players from a club I hope to meet in the next 48 hours, one of them is Irish,” he said.

“I’ve been linked with about 70 players since I took the job, they are two players that did very well for me at Sunderland.

“But it is difficult for us to get players out of the Premiership for lots of reasons and I can’t keep coming back to the same players I had at Sunderland either.”

Meanwhile, Black Cats boss Steve Bruce is understood to have held preliminary talks with Paraguayan defender Paulo Da Silva yesterday.

Sunderland were confident of signing the 29-year-old until Tottenham and Harry Redknapp declared an interest – and the stopper now looks set to visit North London for talks too.

The Black Cats have made enquiries about more than five players, including Peter Crouch, Darren Bent and Wigan midfielder Lee Cattermole.

But with Bruce only having returned from holiday this week, it may be next week before the club are in a position to officially unveil any new arrivals.

The Black Cats’ first pre-season friendly is at Darlington next Thursday evening before heading for Portugal to face Portimonense.

Bruce has said he hoped to have new faces on board before his team leave for the Amsterdam Tournament, where they are due to meet Benfica on July 24 and Atletico Madrid two days later.