Former England international Rio Ferdinand has revealed that he is no longer friends with his former international teammate, John Terry, who was found guilty of racially abusing Ferdinand’s brother, Anton Ferdinand, back in 2011.

Terry escaped punishment from the court of law, but he was given a four match ban by the English FA. Terry since retired from international duty claiming that the FA have not been treating him properly. Ferdinand also announced his retirement from international football in order to extend his club career. Even this was unable to prevent him from leaving United in the summer.

The 35-year-old has since joined QPR on a free transfer. QPR was the destination of his brother Anton Ferdinand a few years ago. It was during a match between QPR and Chelsea that the racial abuse incident came to the surface. Terry retired from international duty shortly, but he had come against Ferdinand on a couple of occasions with United. Despite this, the 35-year-old says that he is not on speaking terms with Terry especially given that the Chelsea defender failed to apologise for the incident. Ferdinand also does not get along well with another former England teammate, Ashley Cole.

Ferdinand will be coming up against Manchester United during the weekend and it will be his first time since leaving the club."He never apologised to me or Anton and has never hinted he has had a moment of understanding over the damage his stupidity has inflicted on everyone. There were bullets in the post and unending racist abuse. He could have saved everyone a lot of pain by admitting immediately that he had used the words in the heat of the moment, but was no racist.I think that's probably what happened and what the truth is. Anton and I would have accepted that - instead he never gave us the chance,” said Ferdinand.

Sunderland had an extremely positive result on Saturday after managing a 0-0 draw against table leaders Chelsea.

Wes Brown had a very good match after managing to keep Diego Costa relatively quiet. The former Manchester United man is keen to repeat the job against Premier League’s current top scorer Sergio Aguero. Manchester City will be the visitors to the Stadium of Light for the midweek Wednesday action.City have suffered several defeats against Sunderland away from home in recent seasons so much so that they have become their bogey team.

Even though the black cats have been struggling against relegation trouble for much of this period, there is believed within the Sunderland players that they can once again to the job on City. However, they have to stop Aguero if they are to do so. The former Atletico Madrid forward is one of the deadliest in world football and he leads the way with 12 league goals – one better than Costa. Even though City also have players like Yaya Touré and Jesus Navas who can find the back of the net, Brown has singled out the threat from Aguero. The draw against Chelsea was the fourth consecutive match in which Sunderland avoided a defeat.

“He’s a completely different type of threat to Costa, but just as deadly in that position he plays in.Aguero has got that low centre of gravity, he can do those quick-turns and he’s strong as well.But we just have to go into the game with the same attitude really.Every player has to work 100 per cent and put in a little bit more against the top teams.Catts started that off against Chelsea and continued all the way through. We put everything in and managed to stop them scoring and got a draw,” said Brown ahead of the City match.

In the previous season of the Premier League Sunderland managed to somehow avoid being relegated after claiming victories against Manchester United and Chelsea and forcing Manchester City to a draw. All of these results helped Sunderland in their survival of staying and competing in the top tier English league for another season.

This time around Sunderland has not won a single match in this season of the Premier League as they have played 6 matches so far and the club is already struggling trying to keep their heads above the water and attempting to avoid the bottom relegation spots.

Sunderland’s Wes Brown is hoping that his club and teammates can start collecting positive results and points in the early stages of the Premier League as this can avoid having to go through scares later on.

Wes Brown said: "We said to ourselves that going into the new season we had to get back whatever we had at the end of last season. We don't know how we got it or what made us do it, but we knew we had to get that back, somehow. And we still have to do that’’

"You could say we have better players now but maybe it is the mental side of it, with everyone coming together again and showing exactly what we did last year because at the end of last season it was pretty good. I didn't come here to play Championship next season. I came to play in the Premier League, which is where everyone wants to be. There's no doubt, I think we will survive."
The head coach of Sunderland, Gus Poyet has had to cope in the early stages of the Premier League with a number of injuries with: Mame Biram Diouf, Sebastian Coates, Geoff Cameron and Emanuele Giaccherini have been just a few of the players which have sustained injuries or are out injured in this start of the Premier League.

Wes Brown has said that his team Sunderland must make a better start to the League this season.
The Black Cats had played absolutely terribly in their first few matches during the 2013-14 League. They had won just 1 out of the first 8 matches that they had played and had it not been for some great performances in the second half of the season, they could so easily have been relegated to the Championship.

Sunderland might have made a remarkable comeback to survive in the League the previous season, but, according to Brown, it’s not going to happen every season. So, his teammates need to ensure that they collect Points right from the start of the league and don’t leave it for too late.
Talking to the reporters yesterday, Brown said, “As far as the last season is concerned, the end was okay for us. We were tested, but, we did enough to survive.”

“That was our own fault though. We had come under so much of pressure only because we had not played well at the start. We hardly collected points in the first 7-8 weeks. That’s not good at all. Hard work early puts you in a comfortable situation and that’s what we will be looking to do this summer. A few wins early on in the season would be great.”

This is going to be Brown’s last season at the Stadium of Light unless he gets a contract extension at some point of time this year or next year. The veteran player was a key part of Sunderland’s back line last season playing 20 league matches. In the season prior to that though i.e. in the 2012-13 Season, Brown had not played even one league match because of injury.

Wes Brown has said that his team Sunderland must make a better start to the League this season.
The Black Cats had played absolutely terribly in their first few matches during the 2013-14 League. They had won just 1 out of the first 8 matches that they had played and had it not been for some great performances in the second half of the season, they could so easily have been relegated to the Championship.

Sunderland might have made a remarkable comeback to survive in the League the previous season, but, according to Brown, it’s not going to happen every season. So, his teammates need to ensure that they collect Points right from the start of the league and don’t leave it for too late.
Talking to the reporters yesterday, Brown said, “As far as the last season is concerned, the end was okay for us. We were tested, but, we did enough to survive.”

“That was our own fault though. We had come under so much of pressure only because we had not played well at the start. We hardly collected points in the first 7-8 weeks. That’s not good at all. Hard work early puts you in a comfortable situation and that’s what we will be looking to do this summer. A few wins early on in the season would be great.”

This is going to be Brown’s last season at the Stadium of Light unless he gets a contract extension at some point of time this year or next year. The veteran player was a key part of Sunderland’s back line last season playing 20 league matches. In the season prior to that though i.e. in the 2012-13 Season, Brown had not played even one league match because of injury.

A string of injuries forced Wes Brown to left out of a number of matches for Manchester United. His first injury occurred back in 1999 which forced him to stay on the sidelines at Old Trafford for the entire season of that year. The English defender made his return to the pitch the following year and even received praise from the former Manchester United coach Sir. Alex Ferguson as the Scottish tactician praised Wes Brown considering him to be the most talented defender of the team.

From there on out Wes Brown spent 11 more seasons as a player of Manchester United with some impressive seasons where he managed to make a consistent number of appearances while others were plagued with the English defender sustaining a consistent number of injuries which was one of the main reasons on why Manchester United opted to sell him to Sunderland for a transfer fee that was never really released to the public.

Brown is now going through his last year of his contract with Sunderland and when the veteran defender was asked if he has thought about extending his contract with the Premier League club, the Englishman went on saying that he just wants to focus on having a successful campaign in the next season.

Brown said: “No, there is no point. I just want to play as well as I can this season hopefully stay in the team and then see what happens. I have played football all my life so it is not just something I am going to quit straightaway if it is possible to carry on. I am not the sort of person who does not like football or becomes bored with it. It has been with me since I can remember, so until these legs drop off I will try to play as much as I can!”

Even when Wes Brown left Manchester United and joined Sunderland, he has still struggled trying to stay in shape and avoid injuries and this is what he is trying to avoid in the next season of the Premier League.

Despite being linked to various clubs in England as well as abroad, it appears as if Adam Johnson would stay at the Stadium of Light this summer.

There have been speculations in the last month or so that Johnson might be moving to Liverpool or to the Ligue 1 club Monaco, but, according to the reports coming through, that’s not going to happen as Gus Poyet, the Sunderland boss, doesn’t want to let the 26-year old Englishman go.
The Uruguayan manager is believed to be very impressed with the way Johnson played in the last few matches of the 2013-14 Season.

Sunderland had to win most of their matches towards the end of the last season to make sure that they don’t get relegated to the second tier of English football and they did that thanks to the wonderful performances put up by some of their players including Johnson.

Johnson had been brought at the Stadium of Light a couple of years ago in 2012. He had cost the Black Cats an amount of 10 million pounds.

For the first one and half years that he spent at the club, Johnson was not consistent at all. But, he lifted his game at a crucial time in the last season to help Sunderland finish above the relegation zone and by doing that; he managed to get himself into Poyet’s plans for the future.

However, it would be interesting to see what Poyet does in case he gets a lucrative bid for Johnson. As things stand right now, he is no mood to sell the winger, but, in the world of football, nothing can be ruled out.

Johnson has so far played 70 Premier League matches for Sunderland in which he has managed to score 13 goals.

Sunderland’s survival in the Premier League has led to Gus Poyet being speculated to being named as the manager of the season as Sunderland at some point in time seemed to be doomed at the bottom of the English league but a few of crucial victories allowed the team to remain competing in the Premier League at least for another season.

This survival has been hailed as a ‘’miracle’’ according to fans of the club and even Poyet himself and now the Uruguayan is being taken into consideration for other teams in the Premier League including Southampton and West Ham but Poyet remains confident that he will remain in charge of Sunderland for at least another season.

Poyet said: ‘’Every single manager in the world when he finishes the season has a meeting with the chairman of the football club, winning the league, going down, in the middle, having been named somewhere else, with contract, without contract it's natural’’.

‘’Every now and then when a manager says, "I need to meet with the chairman to see where we are going", you all start to think, "He's leaving" or "He's not happy" or "There's a problem", but it's nothing. Yes, I want to know where we are going, if it's possible not to make the same mistakes that we have made in the last couple of years because I don't want to go through another year like this one’’.

When Poyet was asked if he expects to remain in charge of Sunderland, he responded by saying yes.

Asked if he expected to be in charge in August, Poyet said: 'Yes,' before adding with a smile: 'You are scaring me now. What do you know that I don't know?

‘’The rumors are natural; there are so many rumors all the time. But that means you are doing something special or you are being recognized for something, whatever it is’’.

Sunderland suffered yet another setback in their fight against relegation after losing 5-1 at the hands of Tottenham during the weekend. This results has led to Sunderland remaining in the rock bottom position of the table, while they are without a win since the middle of February. Back then, they managed a 1-0 win over Southampton in the FA Cup that appeared to improve their chances of avoiding relegation since there were several matches still left in the Premier league. However, after almost 2 months without a win, the players are low on confidence.

This was especially evident in the 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Tottenham. After the match, former Manchester United defender Wes Brown revealed that he was culpable for most of the goals conceded by his team. However, he still remains confident of avoiding relegation with six matches left in the season. They travel to Everton in the next match to face a team that has top four ambitions in sight. This was the biggest defeat of the season for Sunderland, as manager Gus Poyet has come under increasing pressure for failing to turn around the club’s fortunes.

Another defeat in the upcoming match against Everton will be catastrophic for Sunderland, who have been in the Premier league for the last few years.

“Their player has got behind me for the first and second goals. I should be closer and then I just couldn’t get there. We can talk all we want to about having to cut out the mistakes, but we have to do it. We have to do better when we’re going forwards too. We’re not helping ourselves. We’ve just got to keep going. The table doesn’t lie, it’s bad. But we’ve got to keep going. Unless we can produce 90 minutes where we’re 100%, we can only blame ourselves,” said Brown.

Sunderland’s Wes Brown has seen his time limited with the relegation threatened club due to a long-term knee injury but after making a full recovery he has been placed into the starting lineup of Gus Poyet since November which was the time when the 34 years old defender started getting back in action and playing with the Premier League threatened club.

Despite having completed his recovery from his knee injury not too long ago, Brown believes that the more matches he plays is better for him.

“Playing three games a week is probably better for me. The next day is a warm-down and then it’s a light session, which in a way, is a lot easier. If you’ve got two or three hard days, long sessions, in a week, it can take its toll on my knees. Ask anyone, if you play a game, it does so much more for you than anything in training.” Wes Brown said.

Wes Brown has formed a superb central defensive pairing with John O’Shea in this season as they have kept clean sheets on a large number of matches in which they played together.
Sunderland has a very busy schedule ahead of them, as they have to face off against some of the top clubs in the Premier League including Everton, Tottenham, Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United just to name a few.

Gus Poyet will have to secure valuable points in their upcoming matches if he wants to steer clear away from the bottom relegation zone but head coach of the club has revealed the importance of having Wes Brown back at his disposal.

"It's been great for me to have him. When I came here, I don't think too many people at the club were counting on Wes, but he's been very important. He has great experience, but he also has great understanding of the game. He sees danger and that's why he's played at the top level and won trophies’’. Poyet stated.