Sunderland have appealed to Fifa in the hope of gaining special dispensation to sign Mika, the Boavista goalkeeper, outside the transfer window and are also desperately searching for an unattached striker.
Agreement had been reached over Mika’s transfer from Portugal shortly before Wednesday night’s transfer deadline but a delay in finalising the paperwork at Boavista’s end dictated the move fell through.
With Vito Mannone, David Moyes’s first choice keeper, out for three months with an elbow injury and Jordan Pickford, his deputy, withdrawn from England Under-21 duty nursing a thigh problem, Sunderland currently lack a fit senior goalkeeper.
Although Pickford is expected to have recovered in time for the home game with Everton on Monday week, the club are banking on their appeal succeeding. If not, they will ask the Premier League for permission to seek an emergency loan. Although such short-term deals have now been abolished for outfield players, clubs without two senior goalkeepers are permitted to seek cover on a week-by-week basis.
Moyes’s problems at the other end of the pitch have been exacerbated by the news that Fabio Borini will be sidelined from his attack for at least three months with a groin problem. That leaves Jermain Defoe as his sole senior central striker and, to make matters worse, the 33-year-old is playing with a slight hamstring problem which, ideally, needs resting.
Moyes – disappointed not to have concluded a deal for the former France midfielder Yann M’Vila with Rubin Kazan – can sign a free agent and is considering whether to make a move for his former Everton forward Victor Anichebe who has been released by West Brom where he failed to score a single goal last season.
Meanwhile Nicklas Bendtner, released by Wolfsburg and who scored eight goals in 25 games during a previous loan at Sunderland, is another option as are another Wearside and West Brom old boy, Stéphane Sessègnon and Emmanuel Adebayor, who was released by Crystal Palace last spring.
Now 35, Dimitar Berbatov, once of Manchester United, is also a free agent after leaving Greek club PAOK. “We worked incredibly hard to get a striker in before the deadline,” said Moyes. “But unfortunately we couldn’t get a deal done.”
M’Vila, who shone on loan at Sunderland last season, is expected to return in January when his contract in Russia ends. Moyes had hoped to sign him more immediately but Rubin Kazan held out for a fee of more than £7m and the Premier League club refused to pay that for a midfielder with only four months left on his current deal.
M’Vila has already signed a pre-contract agreement with Sunderland for January but was desperately disappointed not to return on Wednesday. After being excluded from Rubin Kazan’s squad he is now in limbo.
