Alonso may be reason for Henry’s gardening leave

Marcos Alonso looks booked for a move to Sunderland and thus the Black Cats decision to put the Irons recruitment head in waiting, Tony Henry, on ‘gardening leave’ becomes clear!

Stadium of Light boss Gus Poyet has been reported in Spanish sports paper Marca as saying: “I’m there with ‘Marquitos’ Alonso, I already had him for six months. We are doing everything possible so that Fiorentina give him to us.”

Quite clearly, Sunderland’s departed chief scout Henry would have been heavily involved in attempting to make the deal, and others, happen and it’s entirely possible he was working on the deal before we made our job offer to him.

Having  resigned from Sunderland, had he arrived at Upton Park, he would have been totally aware of every spit and cough involved in the Alonso deal, price, personal terms – the lot!

He would also have known that Modibo Diakite made nine appearances for Fiorentina during a loan spell last season.

Sunderland are now expected to make a cash plus player offer for Alonso in the coming days with Diakite going the other way – more details of which Henry would almost certainly have had in his possession.

‘Gardening leave ‘ is an option used by companies to ensure departing employees can’t used confidential information – it’s more than likely it has cost us the services of a very good left back!