The Ligue 1 team Saint-Étienne’s relegation means that the £6 million Sunderland trade will not proceed.
After Saint-Étienne’s relegation to Ligue 2 was confirmed on Saturday night, Pierre Ekwah is expected to rejoin Sunderland this summer. As a result, the French team will not exercise their option to purchase the midfield player.
Ekwah, 23, has been one of the few bright spots in what has turned out to be a terrible season for the French team. He joined ASSE on loan last summer after head coach Regis Le Bris decided he was surplus to needs. According to April reports, Saint-Étienne would think about exercising their £6 million option-to-buy clause if they managed to avoid relegation—a situation that is no longer relevant after their fall to the second division.
Even though Ekwah had a reasonably strong individual campaign and shown flashes of brilliance, his efforts were insufficient to assist Saint-Étienne close the gap and reach safety. The former Sunderland mainstay played a significant role in midfield, contributing control and energy, but ASSE lost the season, finishing three points outside of the relegation play-off zone and six points outside of safety.
As a result, the £6million permanent transfer is now off the table, and Ekwah will return to the Academy of Light in the coming weeks. What happens next for the midfielder is uncertain. His future will likely hinge on Sunderland’s outcome in next weekend’s Championship play-off final against Sheffield United at Wembley.
Given his inexperience in the Premier League, Sunderland would probably want to trade Ekwah if they were promoted to the league. Ekwah, however, has a remote chance of rejoining Le Bris’ team to compete for his spot if they lose.
Ekwah joined Sunderland from West Ham in January 2023, and while his physicality and distribution initially impressed, he has had few first-team appearances this season due to new management. He was supposed to receive more regular playing time from his loan to Saint-Étienne, which he mostly did despite the team’s difficulties.
What has Kristjaan Speakman said about Pierre Ekwah’s future?
Kristjaan Speakman revealed his thought process behind Pierre Ekwah’s loan move to France during an interview at the start of last summer.
“Pierre’s got three years left on his contract (now two), and look at the minutes not in the team is the hard facts on it,” Speakman said when asked about Ekwah’s departure by The Echo last summer. “We were just trying to work out what was the best next step for him.
“There were a number of opportunities that came up, one of which was Saint Etienne. I think it was a significant loan offer, gave him an opportunity to play in a different environment, in a different league and enabled us to be able to keep him playing regularly, which arguably he might not have done, maybe in the first opening sequence of the season.
He ended up being a little lower in the selection order as a result of his injury. With Milan (Aleksic) and Salis (Abdul Samed), we were able to bring in a new kind of player, so it was a fantastic opportunity for us. We were simply assembling what we believe to be the best team for the forthcoming season.
