The Black Cats’ last game yielded a point at newly-promoted Swansea with the home team still full of beans after their promotion, and that was not a bad result on the face of it. That is the headline view, but what was going on behind the scenes?

I felt Asamoah Gyan looking a bit selfish at times when approaching goal, was he a bit too desperate to get on the score sheet? This was especially towards the end of the game when Connor Wickham would surely have converted from a simple sideways pass when Gyan decided to shoot on goal himself. He has looked this season as if he has other things on his mind, despite all his utterances to the contrary. It must be unsettling when top clubs show interest, but this is the name of the game for a successful footballer in the world's top league.

So this week Sunderland boss Steve Bruce has claimed "parasites" have turned Asamoah Gyan's head with talk of joining one of European football's biggest clubs, as reported by the Sunderland Echo. The 25-year-old striker was the subject of repeated speculation throughout the summer transfer window with rumours of a move to Turkey emerging as the deadline approached. Gyan has remained on Wearside and the Black Cats insist they did not receive a single offer, and now Bruce has challenged the former Rennes frontman to rediscover the form which made him an instant hit on Wearside.

The Sunderland boss is convinced the striker has not recovered from the response to his impressive display for Ghana in their 1-1 friendly draw with England at Wembley in March and the publicity that sparked. Bruce said: "Since that game at Wembley, all the parasites, as I call them, hover around. People are in his ear constantly trying to engineer a deal for him. Certainly since the England game, when he played at Wembley so well on the night, something has been troubling him.

"It's very difficult, the constant speculation no matter what you try to quash or quell, and the people around him, the people who want to make a fast buck, shall we say, and it affects him in the end. He was going from Real Madrid to Bayern Munich to Valencia to Atletico Madrid. We have had a discussion with him and he needs now to focus and get himself back on track again and be the Asamoah Gyan we know he is capable of.

Gyan will not end his drought this weekend after being ruled out of tomorrow's intriguing clash with Chelsea at the SSOL with a hamstring injury suffered on international duty, and this means that new loan signing Nicklas Bendtner will be in the spotlight in a side that has notched just a single goal in its four opening games so far this season.

Personally I have never been totally convinced by Bendtner, despite playing in a good Arsenal side. But then I was not aware of his tender age – the Dane is still just 23 and was never really on the right side of Wenger, according to reports. He showed his pedigree by his 2 goals for his national side in midweek against Norway.

Again we need to trust Steve Bruce’s judgement – he knows the player well from his time at Birmingham. Let us hope as true fans that Bendtner proves me wrong with a string of goals for his new club.

So with Craig Gordon, Fraizer Campbell, Michael Turner and David Meyler (all knee) on the sidelines along with John O’Shea, and with Anton Ferdinand now at QPR, the side is likely to be: Mignolet; Bardsley, Brown, Bramble, Richardson; Larsson, Cattermole, Gardner, Vaughan or Colback; Sessegnon, Bendtner.

There is quality in the above side, despite a lack of confidence in front of goal. We just need couple of wins and when better to start but in Saturday’s clash against Chelsea.
©Lars J.S. Knutsen

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