Florent Ghisolfi on Sunderland’s deadline day and Kyril Louis Dreyfus stepping in | OneFootball

"I'm not far, I will go," Kyril Louis Dreyfus told his director of football as Crystal Palace tried to hijack Sunderland’s move for Malick Fofana.

"I was proud," said Florent Ghisolfi. "I couldn't be there because of everything else, so it gave me this extra energy. 'OK, we push again'." According to Sunderland Echo, Louis-Dreyfus travelled from Switzerland.

Ghisolfi said a difficult window left Sunderland chasing three players on deadline day, with Kevin Danso agreed early. Both clubs readied planes in Lyon before Fofana’s medical in France. "I'm so sorry for the planet, for the environment, because it was a lot of planes for one signature!"

"I always believed that he will sign in Sunderland because it was in my opinion the right choice for him," he said. "You can be losing 2-1 and, poof, you can win at the end in the 90, 95th minute."

Sunderland shifted from pursuing a specialist right winger to securing high-calibre wide quality, trusting others to cover. "I was following Malick from when he played in Belgium," he said. "He brings talent, and he's someone who doesn't feel the pressure."

"The last one was Juan Riquelmo Angulo," he said of a deal done with minutes to spare. "We were always confident to close, but maybe it could be two players or three." He said six signings were the roadmap, and five would have been acceptable with the winter market ahead.

"This alignment I think is our strength today," Ghisolfi said of the manager and ownership. "He's not a dictator, he wants to understand, to support, to follow."

Source: Sunderland Echo

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”