Gus Poyet turns his sights on Will Buckley.
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Sunderland manager Gus Poyet is ready to move on from his pursuit of Liverpool forward Fabio Borini, report the Express, with the Black Cats reportedly having made a £2.5 million bid for Will Buckley from Poyet’s former club Brighton & Hove Albion.
Poyet has been looking to secure a deal to bring Borini back to the Stadium of Light on a permanent basis this summer, after the Italian enjoyed a successful loan spell last season, but that seems to have hit the buffers due to concerns over a shoulder injury.
The report suggests that Sunderland may now be more interested in bringing Borini back on loan rather than permanently, if they are not able to ensure that the problem with his shoulder won’t persist into the future.
This may have led to Poyet’s pursuit of Buckley, a fleet-footed winger who impressed under Poyet during his successful tenure at Brighton, and is a potential alternative for Borini, who largely operated from a wide position during the closing months of last season.
Borini is believed to want to leave Liverpool in search of first team football, having struggled for opportunities since Brendan Rodgers brought him the club from Roma, but the Reds are unlikely to be in any rush to get rid of players with Rodgers likely to want a much bigger squad to help his side compete both domestically and in Europe last season.