Sunderland have completed the signing of Dame N’Doye, who will spend the remainder of the season on loan at the Stadium of Light club.
Sam Allardyce is desperate to add to his squad during the January window as he looks to guide the Black Cats to Premier League safety, and he has already been able to secure Bayern Munich’s Jan Kirchhoff for a fee of £750,000. The German, a former international at Under-21 level, has been brought in to shore up a defence that has conceded more goals than any other in the division.
And now the Wearside club have made their second transfer of the month, after agreeing a deal to take N’Doye from Trabzonspor for the rest of the season. Most in England will remember the Senegal international, who has 26 caps for his country, from his spell at Hull City last term, in which he scored five times in 15 league appearances but couldn’t prevent their relegation.
“Dame will bring something different to our forward options,” said Allardyce of the 30-year-old, whose most prolific spells have been with Copenhagen and Lokomotiv Moscow for whom he scored 59 and 27 goals respectively. “Having already played in the Premier League, he should have no problems in hitting the ground running too, which is very important at this stage of the season.”
N’Doye will not be available for the clash with Tottenham Hotspur this weekend as he awaits international clearance, and besides, who is to say he would get in the team considering Jermain Defoe’s form? The former England international scored a hat-trick as Sunderland beat Swansea City 4-2 on Wednesday, and the 33-year-old is confident he has more goals in his locker.
“I always visualise before the game that I am going to score,” said Defoe. “If you get the chances you have to put them away. I have always said when you are scoring goals for some reason they just seem to come and come and come. That is the way it is going at the minute and hopefully it will continue. But it is important we are solid and the front four get the chances to score.”
The win at the Liberty Stadium was a huge boost for the Black Cats’ hopes of avoiding relegation to the Championship, as although they remain in the bottom three, they are now just one point behind Alan Curtis’ side. Next up is the trip to White Hart Lane, where they will face a Tottenham side smarting from their 1-0 loss to Leicester City which has dented their title ambitions.
