Sunderland Transfers: 10 Players Derek McInnes Could Bring With Him

9. Sam Johnstone

Derek McInnes Daryl Murphy
By Catherine Kõrtsmik (Flickr: U-19 Croatia vs England.) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Even ahead of the McInnes appointment, Sunderland have made no secret of their desire to land Manchester United goalkeeper Sam Johnstone following Jordan Pickford's £30million departure to Everton.

As perennial Premier League strugglers over the last decade, holding on to great stoppers has been a huge problem for the Black Cats. Pickford is one of a string of keepers to move on from Sunderland in the last decade, following Thomas Sorenson, Craig Gordon, Simon Mignolet and Costel Pantillimon to pastures new after gaining popularity with the Stadium of Light faithful.

A loan spell at Aston Villa last season gave Johnstone valuable Championship experience, with manager Steve Bruce keen to tie the 24-year-old up for one more season as Manchester United look elsewhere for a potential David De Gea replacement.

Though he's contracted until 2018, Johnstone has a £5million price tag from Old Trafford, and may be a keen investment for McInnes in immediately plugging a huge hole in the first team.

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Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett