SUNDERLAND’S attempts to land Manchester United ace Wes Brown look to be dead as the player is believed to not want a move to the North East.

The Black Cats last week submitted a £12million bid in the hope of prising Brown (pictured left), Darron Gibson and John O’Shea away from Old Trafford. Manchester United on their part accepted the offer and gave Sunderland permission to talk to all three players with a view to signing.

Gibson is, barring intervention, more likely to join Steve Bruce’s side after encouraging comments from the player with talks believed to be going well.

However, there appear to be stumbling blocks with O’Shea and Brown with the latter effectively knocking any prospective Wearside switch.

O’Shea, having played in more than half of the games in the Red Devils’ latest Premier League title-winning campaign, believes he still has something to offer at Old Trafford, though the fact Man United have given permission for another club to sign him could turn him towards Sunderland, should he feel that he’s not wanted.

While former England central defender Brown has resigned himself to leaving the Champions League runners-up, it appears he does not want to

move to Wearside, preferring to continue to ply his trade in the North West.

That will no doubt alert the likes of Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers to his availability but as far as Sunderland are concerned, this deal looks to be a non-starter.

Two deals that are likely to go through are the acquisition of South Korean striker Ji Dong-Won from Chunnam Dragons and Coventry City goalkeeper Keiren Westwood – however, the beginning of July looks set to be the earliest date of their respective arrivals.

Red tape seems to be holding up Ji’s £800,000 move, while Westwood is waiting for his contract at Coventry City to expire at the end of this month before putting pen to paper at the Stadium of Light.

Westwood’s former boss when he was at Carlisle, Paul Simpson, has backed the 26-year-old to be a success at the Stadium of Light.

He said: “Keiren was certain in his mind what he wanted to do and he deserves it for achieving a move to a Premier League club.

“He was strong enough to deal with his contract situation and still perform, even though there was so much going on.

“He looked a real quality keeper at Championship level and joining a Premier League club is a natural progression for him. I think he will become a top-class international keeper.

“He has all the tools to make it in the Premier League, no doubt about it. It isn’t a gamble by Sunderland, because he won’t let them down.”

Westwood’s arrival could spark the end of keeper Craig Gordon’s time on Wearside. With his knee injury looking likely to force him to miss the start of the season, Bruce has had to bolster his options in goal.

With a year left on Gordon’s contract and the prospect of Westwood denying him first-team football even when he recovers, the player who arrived in a £9million deal from Scottish Premier League side Heart of Midlothian in August 2008, could be on his way with Arsenal strongly linked to swoop for him.

One other possibility could rest with whether or not Alex McLeish being appointed as Aston Villa manager with the Scot believed to be interested to signing Rangers keeper Allan McGregor, which could pave the way for Gordon to move to Ibrox.

He came close to making that move three years ago only to set his sights on joining an English club.

Meanwhile, Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn has furiously hit out at “outside agents” who he feels are trying to sell top striker Asamoah Gyan from under his feet.

“The suggestion is embarrassing,” fumed Quinn. “I hope our fans would be smart enough to realise that this is probably some other club or outside agent’s way of attempting to destabilise our relationship with one of our players.

“I’m sorry that our fans have to read the endless speculation that appears in the press at this time of year.

“Normally we don’t comment on any of it as there’s so much. For instance, we’ve been linked to over 40 players in the last month or so alone.

“What I can say is that we are in a number of meaningful negotiations to bring players in and when there’s anything definitive to report, it will be on our club website for our fans to read.”