Pundit fumes as Sunderland open talks with out of contract West Ham starlet. 

In an odd way, there’s a lot of similarities between Sunderland and West Ham. Both are working class clubs who have underachieved (although in different ways) on the whole despite massive fan bases. More importantly though, the two clubs seemingly have a good relationship considering how much business they’ve done over recent years.

In particular, a lot of West Ham’s academy rejects have ended up moving to the Black Cats. However, while they are once again linked with an academy player from the Hammers, this one is no reject.

In fact, West Ham have been desperately trying to keep hold of Divin Mubama. The young striker has an immense record at youth level and, although he hasn’t set the world alight, he’s done a decent job.

While he’d be a good signing for Sunderland on a free transfer (although they would owe the Hammers compensation due to his age) , and the Championship a good level for him to test himself at, former professional footballer Carlton Palmer is not happy with the potential signing. “It is believed that Sunderland have opened talks to sign West Ham’s Divin Mubama,” Palmer explained to Football League World.

“Sunderland’s sporting director Kristjaan Speakman is believed to be plotting to bring in four to six new summer signings. This is quite worrying to me, that your technical director, there’s no manager in place and this might be the problem where they’ve not been able to get a manager in place because the technical director of the football club is orchestrating the moves of the players that come in.”

“So, basically, the manager that comes in has to work with the players that are there, and that might be another problem as to why they’ve not yet got a manager in place.”

“The 19-year-old, unless the clubs can agree a fee, then it will be set by a tribunal. He needs to get out of the football club, he needs more game time. We know Sunderland are a club that wants to go down the youthfulness route, so they want to bring in who they can bring in relatively on the cheap and hope that player develops and then they can sell-on quickly. But what they need is a tried and tested goal machine. They need somebody who can score goals.”

“Yes, you can take young players in, and they’re coming but if they’re going to do well in the division next year then they need someone who is going to get them goals. Divin is a good young player to sign, but it’s not guaranteed that he’s going to come in and score goals at a Championship level.”