On This Day (19th July 2008): Younes Kaboul’s agent dismisses any chance of Sunderland move

With Sunderland riding a crest of a wave in the aftermath of their promotion and subsequent survival back in the Premier League under Roy Keane, the club and fans alike appeared to be living on cloud nine.

The fans really felt like they had their club back under the stewardship of Niall Quinn and his Irish consortium and were enjoying the abundance of new signings and big-name players that were being linked with the club.

With Keane as manager, the club felt they had the pull of a legendary player

as their manager when it came to the negotiating table. The sway of Keane as manager was hoped to be the ‘trump card’ that the team could play in any negotiations with potential players, though this proved to be more difficult in reality.

Keane wasn’t without his failures in the transfer market, with Portsmouth’s Matty Taylor and Preston’s David Nugent refusing to sign for the club along with Wigan Athletic defender Leighton Baines, who joined Everton for sentimental reasons.

On this day seventeen years ago, Sunderland made an ambitious bid for four Tottenham Hotspur players in the shape of Teemu Tainio, Steed Malbranque, Pascal Chimbonda and Younès Kaboul.

Photo credit should read ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images

The Spurs men were all deemed surplus to requirements by their manager Juande Ramos, and with fees agreed between the respective clubs, the only stumbling block remained getting the players to agree to the switch.

With deals for Tainio and Malbranque said to be close, along with Chimbonda said not to be too far behind, the transfer of defender Kaboul was proving to be substantially more difficult.

With Kaboul’s agent Rudy Raba seeming only too pleased to speak to the media about the potential transfer on this day in 2008, it was obvious that Sunderland and their fans were going to be humbled somewhat when Raba suggested that Kaboul wouldn’t join the club, even if there was an earthquake’.

Younes wouldn’t join even if there was an earthquake.

We have more interesting options than Sunderland. Don’t even think about it. No disrespect to them, but playing there wouldn’t help his international career.

With these comments made public, it became fairly clear that the transfer of Kaboul to Sunderland was not on the cards. As it transpired, the defender went on to join Portsmouth, reinforcing the notion that he (or his family) didn’t want to be too far from London or, in particular, Harrods, as Keane had stated.

With three of Kaboul’s White Hart Lane colleagues eventually signing for the club, it showed that Keane still had that pull for players to join the club. Years later, Kaboul had to revisit and retrace the comments associated with him after he joined the club in 2015.

Upon signing for the club, Kaboul made his comments clear and blamed his chairman, Daniel Levy, for forcing him to move in one direction.

I have a personality and a mind of my own, I am not a dog. He said I was going to Sunderland, but I said, ‘I go where I want, not where you want me to go’.

Sunderland are a decent club but I do not like people imposing anything on me, like you are a dog. Life is not like this.

It must be said that Kaboul was instrumental to the team that stayed up under Big Sam, where the defender played a key leadership role in ensuring our survival in the Premier League for another season.

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