Sunderland have left Dutch club NEC Nijmegen furious after the transfer involving goalkeeper Robin Roefs, with the Black Cats supposedly breaching a "verbal agreement".
Speakman "delighted" with Sunderland's deadline day
The Black Cats had a summer transfer window to treasure, bringing in as many as 13 players on permanent deals, as well as snapping up loan signings. One player in the latter category was Lutsharel Geetruida, who has sealed a temporary move to Sunderland from RB Leipzig, with sporting director Kristjaan Speakman "delighted" with the piece of business.
"We are delighted that Lutsharel has joined us for the 2025-26 season. He was extremely motivated by our proposal from the very beginning, and the opportunity to bring such a high-calibre player to the Club on loan was a perfect fit for us. Competition for his signature was high, but the combination of our Club, city, and fan base ultimately made the difference."
lutsharel-geertruida-rb-leipzig
RB Leipzig's Lutsharel Geetruida in action against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Despite plenty of positivity at Sunderland, following such a strong summer in the market, they look to have made an enemy with one club.
Sunderland's permanent summer signings Joined from Price
Habib Diarra Strasbourg £27.1m
Brian Brobbey Ajax £21.6m
Simon Adingra Brighton £21m
Enzo Le Fee Roma £19.8m
Chemsdine Talbi Club Brugge £17.2m
Noah Sadiki Union SG £14.6m
Granit Xhaka Bayer Leverkusen £12.9m
Nordi Mukiele Paris Saint-Germain £10.3m
Omar Alderete Getafe £9.8m
Robin Roefs NEC Nijmegen £9m
Bertrand Traore Ajax £2.5m
Reinildo Mandava Atletico Madrid free transfer
Arthur Masuaku Besiktas free transfer
Sunderland slammed by club for "breaching agreement"
As reported by Algemeen Daglbad [via Sport Witness], NEC Nijmegen are livid with Sunderland about their failure to send them Jenson Seelt as part of the deal for Roefs. Seelt was expected to head the other way once the shot-stopper moved to Wearside, but went to Wolfsburg on deadline day instead.
NEC general manager Wilco van Schaik has since revealed technical director Carlos Allbers was the angriest he's ever seen him, regretting the Roefs transfer as a whole.
"I wasn’t happy about that. And certainly not Carlos [Allbers, techincal director]. The takeover was a done deal. We closed the deal with Roefs, and then we also made a verbal agreement with Sunderland that we would acquire Seelt for this amount. They said they’d keep him for a while because he needed to play.
jenson-seelt-sunderland
Jenson Seelt for Sunderland.
"Okay, no problem. It just took forever. Last Sunday, they said they had so many injuries that he wasn’t allowed anymore. On Friday, they called again to say they were going to buy two more defenders after all. So he’s back. Well, we’d already made the arrangements, and suddenly we saw him in the Wolfsburg shirt yesterday afternoon.
"That’s not how you should do business. This is the ugly side of football. I’ve never seen Carlos so angry. He texted them this morning saying he regretted selling Roefs to them. I know Carlos to be very honest and sincere, and I’ve never seen him so angry. He was done with it."
It goes without saying that Sunderland are in the wrong if they agreed to sell Seelt, although it remains to be seen how concrete that claim is.
Either way, the 22-year-old will hopefully enjoy a fruitful time of things at Wolfsburg instead, as the Black Cats potentially look to cool the situation and potentially sell him for a larger profit in the future.