Sunderland boss Martin O'Neill has insisted that Senegal striker Papiss Demba Cisse was never on his radar as reports suggested the 26 year old snubbed the Black Cats for their North East rivals Newcastle. He said: "News was filtering through here that he had turned us down - I'm afraid we hadn't made any enquires for the player at all. Good as he is, we hadn't done so."

He added: "Newcastle are doing brilliantly and of course, that might not please every Sunderland fan - it might not please any of them - but we can't do anything about it at the moment.

"We have to look after ourselves, and we will try to do that as best we can in the next couple of months."

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