Sunderland manager Roy Keane suffered a setback in his bid to make a £23 million pounds swoop for four Tottenham players when Younes Kaboul’s agent insisted his player had no intention of moving to the Stadium of Light.
Keane had made joint bid for Kaboul, Steed Malbranque, Teemu Tainio and Pascal Chimbonda.
But Kaboul’s agent Rudy Raba insisted that his client was not prepared to move to Sunderland.
“Younes wouldn’t join Sunderland even if there was an earthquake,” Raba said. “We have more interesting options than Sunderland. Don’t even think about it.
“I can tell you for sure that he’s going to stay in England next season. Of course he would prefer to have his chance at Tottenham rather than moving to Sunderland.
“No disrespect to them, but playing there wouldn’t help his international career.”
Despite that setback, Keane is still hopeful of landing French winger Malbranque, Finland midfielder Tainio and French right-back Chimbonda.
“I’m hoping that we will have five or six players in by this time next week,” he said. “We are close on a few things and I would hope things will start to happen over the next 48 hours.
“We fly out to Portugal (for pre-season) on Friday but I am not worried about tying up deals that quickly and in time for them to play in our first game on Sunday.
“We are there for a week and if players have to fly and join us on Sunday or Monday, that’s fine.”
