Tony Mowbray admits Sunderland 'chased pretty hard' to sign Championship striker

Sunderland will get a chance to see what they missed out on when Birmingham arrive at the Stadium of Light this weekend.

Tony Mowbray has admitted that Sunderland ‘chased pretty hard’ for Jay Stansfield last summer, but he does not hold any grudges against the youngster.

Stansfield was made available for loan by Fulham, and at one point Sunderland appeared to have won the race for him.

However, he opted to move to Birmingham City instead, and he is expected to lead the line for Wayne Rooney’s side when they visit the Stadium of Light this weekend.

Asked whether he thought Stansfield was going to join Sunderland, Mowbray said: “Yeah, I think so.

“I never got to the point of expecting him to arrive the next day but it’s something we chased pretty hard.

“I did have a conversation with him, I spoke to his manager at Fulham and they were pretty sound and happy that he was coming here. For whatever reason, that didn’t happen.”

Stansfield has gone on to prove a good addition for Birmingham, with him scoring five goals in 12 games so far. That includes two in his last two against Promotion-chasing Southampton and Ipswich.

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By contrast, Sunderland are still to get a goal from a striker this season, but Mowbray does not feel any animosity towards Stansfield for deciding against a move to Wearside.

“Listen, I was a young footballer once and to take you out of your roots and send you 350 miles up the country is probably daunting for him,” Mowbray said.

“I don’t know the reason. Maybe he thinks Birmingham is a great club and he’s always loved Birmingham, I don’t know. Or maybe it’s a one-hour train journey from Birmingham central to Kings Cross, I don’t know.”

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