The £6million Sunderland transfer will now not go through after Ligue 1 club Saint-Étienne were relegated
After Saint-Étienne’s relegation to Ligue 2 was confirmed on Saturday night, Pierre Ekwah is expected to rejoin Sunderland this summer. As a result, the French team will not exercise their option to purchase the midfield player.
Ekwah, 23, has been one of the few bright spots in what has turned out to be a terrible season for the French team. He joined ASSE on loan last summer after head coach Regis Le Bris decided he was surplus to needs. According to April reports, Saint-Étienne would only think about exercising their £6 million option-to-buy clause if they were able to avoid relegation—a situation that is no longer the case after their confirmed plummet into the second division.
Even though Ekwah had a reasonably strong individual campaign and shown flashes of brilliance, his efforts were insufficient to assist Saint-Étienne close the gap and reach safety. The former Sunderland mainstay played a significant role in midfield, contributing control and energy, but ASSE lost the season, finishing three points outside of the relegation play-off zone and six points outside of safety.
Ekwah will now return to the Academy of Light in the upcoming weeks, and the £6 million permanent transfer is no longer on the table. It’s unclear what the midfield player will do next. His future will probably depend on how Sunderland defeats Sheffield United in the Championship play-off final at Wembley next Saturday.
Given his inexperience in the Premier League, Sunderland would probably want to trade Ekwah if they were promoted to the league. Ekwah, however, has a remote chance of rejoining Le Bris’ team to compete for his spot if they lose.
Ekwah joined Sunderland from West Ham in January 2023, and while his physicality and distribution initially impressed, he has had few first-team appearances this season due to new management. He was supposed to receive more regular playing time from his loan to Saint-Étienne, which he mostly did despite the team’s difficulties.
What has Kristjaan Speakman said about Pierre Ekwah’s future?
In an interview at the beginning of last summer, Kristjaan Speakman shared his reasoning behind Pierre Ekwah’s loan move to France.
When The Echo questioned Speakman about Ekwah’s departure last summer, he responded, “Pierre has three years left on his contract (now two), and look at the minutes not in the team is the hard facts on it.” “All we were trying to do was figure out what he should do next.”
Saint Etienne was one of the opportunities that presented itself. It was a big loan offer, in my opinion, since it allowed him to play in a different league and setting and allowed us to keep him playing frequently, which he might not have done, perhaps in the season’s opening stretch.
He ended up being a little lower in the selection order as a result of his injury. With Milan (Aleksic) and Salis (Abdul Samed), we were able to bring in a new kind of player, so it was a fantastic opportunity for us. We were simply assembling what we believe to be the best team for the forthcoming season.
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