Lorient have reacted angrily over Sunderland's decision to pull the plug on a deal for their defender Lamine Kone.

Black Cats manager Sam Allardyce confirmed yesterday that he decided not to go ahead with a £5m move for the French centre-back, despite having an offer accepted by the Ligue 1 side.

"It's quite outrageous," said Lorient vice-president Alex Hayes. "We gave Sunderland our consent last Tuesday, Lamine left the next day to have contract talks, but the player warned us there were problems in negotiating his contract.

"Because of the holidays it dragged out until Monday. They tried to change the pre-agreed deal. Lamine called me to ask if he could return to Lorient and I told him with great pleasure."

Sunderland went on to sign centre-back Jan Kirchhoff from Bayern Munich but are still thought to be in the market for another defender.