Sbragia says Cats lack natural leader

Apr 5 2009 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

RICKY SBRAGIA says Sunderland lack a natural leader in their ranks – and has made signing ‘the next Kevin Ball’ one of his summer transfer priorities.

Sbragia insists Sunderland need more leaders out on the pitch and has pointed to ex-Black Cats captain Ball – who spent nine years as a player on Wearside, and is now the club’s assistant Academy boss – as the kind of inspirational figure he is looking for.

Sbragia said: “If we had a kind of Kevin Ball character out there, it would be ideal – someone with experience and who’s a natural leader.

“But there’s not many of those players around now. At the moment we don’t have great leaders and communicators out there. It is a problem and it’s something I want to sort out in the summer.

“We need someone. We need to change things for next season because at the moment, as a team, we are too quiet.”

Sbragia also wants to bring in players with more Premier League experience after admitting that the squad he inherited when he took over from Roy Keane in December is still inexperienced in certain key areas.