Sunderland confirmed the signing of Manchester United duo Paddy McNair and Donald Love after the duo penned four-year deals at the Stadium of Light earlier today. This represents Sunderland’s second and third signing this summer after the Black Cats landed Papy Djilobodji from Chelsea earlier this week. The club from the North-East of England had to shell out a reported £5.5 million to seal the double swoop.
David Moyes has been actively seeking crucial reinforcements in the Sunderland squad after being named manager of the club earlier this summer. The former Manchester United manager took over from Sam Allardyce, who will now take over the reins of the England team from Roy Hodgson.
Moyes had earlier worked with the pair during his solo season at Old Trafford. McNair who can operate both in defence as well as in midfield will hopefully add more steel to the Sunderland backline after they suffered yet another innocuous season at the back last time around. McNair’s performances for Manchester United had, in fact also propelled him to the Northern Ireland squad for Euro 2016.
Love, who has also featured in United’s first XI has the ability to play both in midfield as well as full-back.
Moyes looked excited at having added quality to his squad and said: “Paddy is a young, athletic player who is improving all the time. He has experience for Northern Ireland and we want to bring as many international players to the club as we can.
“Donald comes highly recommended and is another young player who I hope can develop and improve here.
“I want to add some young players to the squad as well as some senior players and both of them have got really good potential and the opportunity to improve.
“I want to bring in players who are here for the long-term as well as the short and hopefully these two are here for the long-term.”
Love and McNair will hope to impress Moyes with their performances and get some vital playing time after they had gone well down the pecking order at Manchester United following Jose Mourinho’s exemplary spending this summer.
