Source: SKY_Sports
Cana targets top 10
New Sunderland captain Lorik Cana is targeting a top-10 Premier League finish with the Black Cats this season.
The Albania midfielder, who made the switch from Marseille in the summer, has had no problems fitting into the heart of Steve Bruce's midfield.
And the 26-year-old now believes that everything is in place for his new side to crack the top-half of the table.
"I'm enjoying the passion at Sunderland. We have a fantastic stadium, a fantastic training ground, fantastic fans," Cana told The Guardian.
"We have a very good team and a real chance to finish in the top 10 this season. Everything is here."
WarCana's career had an uncertain start as a refugee from war-torn Kosovo and he was denied a visa ahead of a trial with Arsenal 10 years ago.
But with the war in the territory of his birth now over, Cana says he uses the experience as inspiration for his performances on the football pitch.
He added: "The war was terrible for our people. I didn't lose many persons in my family but friends and former neighbours died and others had their houses destroyed.
"At first it was really hard for me to play football because I was always thinking about the war.
"The worst thing was that, for eight or nine years, there was no possibility for me to go back to Kosovo, no possibility to see the rest if my family and friends.
"Now I get my energy from what happened to the Albanians in Kosovo. I want to give my best all the time, to make my family and my people proud."
No Change
The Albanian forms an aggressive midfield partnership with fellow new signing Lee Cattermole at the Stadium of Light.
But despite both picking up yellow cards in abundance in the early stages of the current campaign, manager Bruce insists he will not ask the pair to alter their approach to games.
"I am not going to (ask them to change), it's as simple as that," Bruce told the Sunderland Echo.
"They are not deliberately going out to maim somebody, that's for sure, but the amount of tackles they both try to make, they are going to make one too many or mistime one.
"But if we can just calm them down a little bit, then obviously we will do.
"You can see the way Cana plays, he is a huge competitor and wants to compete, he wants to do all that stuff.
"Of course, we have got to curb the exuberance he has got and try to take away the yellow cards if we can.
"But make no mistake - I think I said it when we signed him - he will be a cult hero here because of the way he plays."
