Sunderland's manager, Steve Bruce, has made his old club, Wigan Athletic, an improved offer for the England Under-21 midfielder Lee Cattermole. Since leaving Wigan, Bruce has been determined to sign Cattermole and he was undeterred when Dave Whelan, Wigan's owner, rejected a first offer for the player last week.
Now Sunderland, whose players will head for a training camp in Portugal this week, have increased their bid to around £6m. As Bruce paid Middlesbrough £3.5m to take Cattermole to the JJB Stadium last summer, that would represent a handsome profit for Wigan.
While Cattermole would undeniably strengthen the spine of Sunderland's side, there are doubts about whether a return to his native north-east is the right thing for a player who had off-field problems at Boro and clearly benefited by moving to the north-west.
Bruce, who is also understood to be competing with Aston Villa to sign the Turkey forward Tuncay from Middlesbrough, completed the signing of another forward, Fraizer Campbell, from Manchester United, on Friday. He has also submitted an £11m bid for Portsmouth's Peter Crouch. The latter bid's success or failure may determine whether Darren Bent swaps Sunderland for Portsmouth this summer.
Dean Whitehead and Daryl Murphy are on the brink of leaving Sunderland for a reunion with their old manager, Roy Keane, at Ipswich Town. Although Whitehead had a mixed relationship with Keane, he has been offered the captaincy at Portman Road.
Despite turmoil off the field and their lack of a manager, Newcastle United won their first pre-season match on Saturday, beating Shamrock Rovers 3–0 in Ireland. Steven Taylor scored from close range in the 57th minute and goals in the last three minutes from Shola Ameobi and Nile Ranger, the latter with a 25-yard strike, wrapped up victory.
Newcastle Town pulled off an excellent win by beating Premier League Stoke City. Chris Burdys earned the Vodkat Premier League side victory with a late winner at the Lyme Valley Stadium after Matthew Etherington had equalised for Stoke. Nantwich Town of the Unibond Premier Division beat a Stoke XI featuring Ryan Shawcross, Liam Lawrence and Danny Higginbotham 2–0.
Tony Mowbray made a successful start as Celtic manager with a 3–0 win over Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium. The New Zealander Chris Killen scored twice in three minutes late in the first half before the substitute Koki Mizuno struck in the 50th minute with a diving header. Marc-Antoine Fortuné, who recently completed a reported £3.8m move from Nancy to Glasgow, came on for the Australia striker Scott McDonald but failed to fire in his first appearance.
