Black Cat Black and Blues

Sunderland players are going to be popular this week as they have nice home matches against Portsmouth and Aston Villa.  But be careful how you pick because according to Yahoo!UK/Eurosport, the Black Cats are struggling with both injuries and suspensions:

Full-backs Phil Bardsley and Kieran Richardson both picked up fifth bookings of the season in the 1-0 defeat at Fulham and will miss bottom side Portsmouth's visit to the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

With the club currently assessing the ankle injury defender Anton Ferdinand picked up at Craven Cottage, John Mensah struggling with a persistent calf problem, Lee Cattermole still fighting his way back from medial ligament damage and keeper Craig Gordon out for three months with a broken arm, Bruce finds himself with limited options once again.

Wither Distin?

With the news that Sylvain Distin will be packing up his gear and putting Manchester City blue in his rear-view mirror, it gets you thinking about where he SHOULD land if he indeed stays in the Premier League. Here's a quick breakdown...

1) Pompey - knows the 'keeper pretty well from their time together at Citeh and after a year of rotating central defenders due to injury (mostly caused by the brittleness of old age) - Distin would be welcome relief. He isn't a spring chicken but he hasn't been a consistent injury casualty like Primus, Campbell, et al.

2) Newcastle - let's see...he's a veteran player, he's foreign, he's a defender, he plays a physical game - anything here NOT scream Big Sam? Actually, he'd be a great signing while NUFC look for some younger options.

3) Aston Villa - continuing yesterday's trend of mentioning Villa everytime a reasonably-good-but-not-great player is being discussed - he'd really solidify the Villains defence in the way that Martin Laursen was supposed to before suffering injury after injury after injury...(there are probably bigger priorities though).

4) Reading - exactly the sort of signing they need to solidify their place in the Premier League. The defence was OK but Distin would represent an upgrade.

5) Everton - more likely to go young than add a veteran but Lescott/Yobo/Distin would be a great 3-man rotation (assuming they can find full backs who will allow Lescott to move back to the middle where he belongs).

6) Arsenal - a stop-gap measure for sure but Senderos doesn't seem to be the answer and Gallas and Toure are pretty much the same player (the smaller, more technical half of a potentially excellent central tandem). Distin would also be a great mentor for Johan Djourou who still seems like he has the potential to be the long-term answer opposite a Toure/Gallas-type partner.

In other random news, I saw a rumor that Everton are chasing Phil Bardsley. If this is more than just hype and he is really available then there should be a lot of interest in him between Everton, Villa, Newcastle, Blackburn, and Bolton all of whom really need a solid right back who can get forward a little bit as well.