Speaking ahead of tomorrow night's game against Swansea City at the Stadium Of Light it has emerged that there is in fact no deal in place, nor even close, for Austrian midfielder-come-defender Paul Scharner.

The reports come from numerous sources online, including Chris Young of the Sunderland Echo, who was very to the point;

MoN has now confirmed Sunderland are not pursuing Paul Scharner #SAFC

— Chris Young (@YoungSunEcho) January 28, 2013

This will come as a delight to some Sunderland fans who were non-too impressed at the fact the 32-year old might be coming over to get some "match practice" as Hamburg called it.

Personally speaking, whilst I'm not disappointed at all that we didn't get him, I think he would have been a nifty addition to the squad, and provide much better cover for the team than Matt Kilgallon might be able to offer us. That said, with Kader Mangane getting up to speed and Carlos Cuellar recovering from injury, both Killa and Scharner would be well down the pecking order.