Gus Poyet was somewhat known for pulling a rabbit out of the hat when it came to transfers. <\/p>\n
The former Sunderland manager appeared to have a fairly decent knowledge of players on the continent, with signings such as Nacho Scocco and Oscar Ustari instantly springing to mind as signings labelled \u2018unknown quantities\u2019.<\/p>\n
As another transfer window was upon us by the middle of July eleven years ago, names were beginning to circulate in the local media and with a bid for Swansea City\u2019s Ashley Williams failing, reports were suggesting that we were looking across the Atlantic for a new defender.<\/p>\n
This is where the name Matt Besler was first heard in the North East. <\/p>\n
He\u2019d impressed for the United States at the 2014 World Cup and had caught the eye of a number of clubs in England and across Europe \u2014 including Sunderland, and with speculation swirling, he succumbed to speaking to the media about his predicament.<\/p>\n
Whilst admitting he was in no rush to leave Sporting Kansas City, he revealed that Sunderland had made an offer and so urged his employers to make up their mind as to whether they were going to offload him so he could get on with the rest of his summer.<\/p>\n
With an offer of around \u00a33 million said to have been tabled by the club, Besler sought clarity on the matter.<\/p>\n
\nI know that Sunderland put in an offer or are putting in an offer. We\u2019re trying to get something done as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a situation which needs to get resolved. I want to be staying in Kansas City if I\u2019m going to stay. But if they\u2019re going to sell me then I want to know as soon as possible. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just my decision; it\u2019s the club\u2019s if they want to sell me or not. But I would definitely have an input in a team.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Whether this was a strategy by Besler\u2019s agent to spark a bidding war for his player or that the likes of ourselves and Fulham had genuine interest in the player remains uncertain, but as it transpired, Besler never left the US for the entire length of his career \u2014 making the suggestions that Sunderland had bid for him all the less likely.<\/p>\n
One must think that if the club really did want the USA defender, a deal could\u2019ve been complete fairly quickly, and Besler played for Sporting Kansas until 2020 before spending one season at Austin FC.<\/p>\n
![\"Manchester](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/452582172.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Photo by Kyle Rivas\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gus Poyet was somewhat known for pulling a rabbit out of the hat when it came to transfers.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[102275,15581,3590,53809,126,163,59243,35380,3577,11626,254,2963,2962,2958,9989,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-268824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-besler","9":"tag-claim","10":"tag-day","11":"tag-defender","12":"tag-features","13":"tag-front-page","14":"tag-july","15":"tag-makes","16":"tag-of","17":"tag-offer","18":"tag-on","19":"tag-report","20":"tag-roker","21":"tag-sunderland","22":"tag-this","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Sunderland](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/465409277.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n