Sunderland set to miss out on 17-year-old target to Hammers
Sunderland target Patrick Kelly is closing in on a move to West Ham.
The promising Coleraine teenage striker was linked with a move to the Stadium of Light last January and this summer.
Kelly enjoyed an impressive breakthrough season at the Showgrounds with reports claiming that Sunderland had watched a number of Kelly’s matches and were interested in a deal.
The 17-year-old signed a professional deal with Coleraine in October, but now looks set to join West Ham under former Sunderland boss David Moyes.
Kelly will join fellow Northern Ireland youth internationals Michael Forbes and Callum Marshall in the West Ham Academy.
The deal for the midfielder is understood to include add-ons, including a sellon clause, according to the BBC.
In other news, former Sunderland boss Lee Johnson has hinted that he applied for a job in the Championship before moving to Hibs.
“To be honest, I only really applied for one job and that job’s still open,” he explained in an interview for BBC Bristol.
“But at the same time, I looked at the Hibs one and initially, I wasn’t sure - not because of the size of the club or because of the Scottish Football piece because obviously I’d been there, but I just didn’t know the intricacies of the club like maybe I would know the intricacies of the clubs in England.
“But then, through some various conversations and, not intermediaries in terms of agents but connections, it seemed like a really good match.
"We had a very relaxed conversation for two or three hours in London and straight away, it just seemed right in terms of the people.
“It’s a very similar setup to the Lansdowns at Bristol because it’s a really good human being in terms of the owner and his son is involved in the club, as Jon was at Bristol.
“It gave me that nice vibe in terms of what I was used to. I do like to build personal relationships within because I like to be working for good people and I’ve been lucky so far in my career that I’ve managed that,” said Johnson.