Sunderland Football Club News

• Nickname:Black Cats
• Founded:1879
• Manager:Martin O'Neill

• Ground:Stadium of light
• Capacity:48,353

Quinn slams Gordon rumour

06 May 2009 - 09:14:21

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Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn has angrily dismissed speculation that goalkeeper Craig Gordon has been dropped due to financial concerns.

The 26-year-old Scotland international has not featured since the 1-0 home win over Hull City and is currently marooned on 49 appearances for the Black Cats.

A 50th outing would trigger a payment of just over £300,000 to former club Hearts, but Quinn insists that that is an irrelevance.

He told the Sunderland Echo: "It was claimed that Craig didn't play because he was on 49 appearances and we as a club didn't want to make a payment to his former club.

"None of us even knew he was on 49 appearances. Craig had a reaction to a knee problem.

"It's almost offensive that someone would think that after all the effort we've made and money we've poured into the club, that we would consider not playing our goalkeeper in an important match because of a payment.

"There are rumours all the time in football and I'm not going to get into the habit of commenting every time but the person who made this up, better not meet me."