McInnes is braced to replace David Moyes after the Black Cats agreed a £1m compensation package with the Scottish club. Aberdeen fought hard to keep McInnes at Pittodrie but Sunderland persuaded him by trebling his £300,000 per year wages and with chief executive Martin Bain promising he will have a significant transfer kitty. The Black Cats do not anticipate any late hitches and hope to make an announcement before the weekend. But with McInnes bringing his No.2 Tony Docherty with him to the Stadium of Light, Moyes’s deputy Paul Bracewell has already left the club. Sunderland are expected to sign Manchester United’s 24-year-old keeper Sam Johnstone, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Aston Villa, as Jordan Pickford’s successor. And McInnes will also try to hijack Celtic’s move for his former Aberdeen player Johnny Hayes, who will leave the Dons this summer. With Lamine Kone and Fabio Borini set to follow Pickford out of Sunderland, the new manager will launch a recruitment drive to build a squad capable of an immediate return to the Premier League.
No quotes and I do believe the Star is this articles origin. Would be nice to have spends but need more than this. Right noises though.
Sam Johnstone is class! I can't believe Aston Villa haven't signed him. He would be a class replacement for Pickford.
I don't think we necessarily need to spend a lot of money, unless we are taken over by a mega-rich sheikh then we need to steadily rebuild over 2-3 years not push to get promoted at the first attempt and have a Championship quality squad (not just team) in the Premier League. Bring through 5-6 youth players, give them experience of a couple of years together as a team.
Dont see why we would waste £5m or so of the budget on Sam Johnstone when Wayne Hennessey and John Ruddy are both available for free. (If they come of course) The £5m fees if they are there to be spent need to go on a centre half and a striker
5m gets you a Murphy, how far will the 25m from Pickford really get us? we need to raise a squad of 15(with more to leave) to around a squad of 40. If we got 40m to spend we'd struggle to build a good championship squad. That's how much work is needed. We shouldn't get carried away.
