Cats could face old boy in Rangers warm-up
SUNDERLAND could face former Black Cats goalkeeper Jon Mclaughlin as they jet off to Portugal for a warm weather training camp.
Alex Neil’s side are set to face Rangers at the Estadio Municipal de Albufeira this Saturday as they continue their preparations for the upcoming Championship campaign.
The game against the Europa League finalists will be a tough test for the Wearsiders ahead of a game against Jose Mourinho’s Europa Conference League winners, AS Roma.
It’s unclear how strong a side Giovanni van Bronkhorst will field, but Sunderland could come up against their former talisman Mclaughlin.
The Scotland international left the club on a free transfer back in 2020, just 12 months after Stewart Donald claimed the shot stopper was worth £5million. Mclaughlin was one of the standout performers during his Wearside tenure and Black Cats supporters were sad to see him depart the Stadium of Light.
“We didn’t want to see Jon go, but it was his choice and we have to respect that,” former boss Phil Parkinson told the Chronicle at the time of his departure. “I worked with Jon previously at Bradford City and then at Sunderland, and he is a very good goalkeeper and an excellent professional - he is someone I rate very highly.
“But he wants to be Scotland’s first choice keeper and that made moving to Rangers a very attractive proposition. He leaves with our best wishes and I hope he is a success there.
“From our point of view, we knew that there was always a chance that Jon would leave this summer so we had already started thinking about possible targets just in case.”
Parkinson wasn’t alone in his admiration for Mclaughlin. Ex-sunderland boss Jack Ross heaped praise on the goalkeeper after he was called up to the Scotland squad for games against Portugal and Israel in the 2018 October international break.
Ross said: “It is great for Jon to be included alongside Craig [Gordon] and Allan [Mcgregor], who are both experienced and proven at international level. I do think Jon was unfortunate not to be in the squad last time.
“His performance levels have just carried on from where he was last season at Hearts and it’s nice for that to be recognised with an international callup. He was one of the first players that I identified that I wanted to bring to the club. It was a position that was important we got right.
“I obviously watched him very closely last season, and when you added that to his experience and the fact that he had been successful in this league, he just ticked so many boxes.
“He’s also at a stage of his life and career where he can handle the pressures of playing for this club. He’s pretty unflappable as a character, and I think you can see that in his performance levels. The one thing that has been hard for him is that he’s not had that real tangible reward in terms of clean sheets.
“We haven’t had enough of them, and that’s frustrating for him, but his performance levels have been very good and he’s undoubtedly played a part in us having a decent start to the season as well. That’s not going to change, because I’m sure he’ll produce that consistency over the course of the season.”