Sunderland to sign West Ham midfielder as Mart Poom's son joins Shamrock Rovers

Alan Nixon states that the Black Cats have struck a loan deal with The Hammers to sign a midfielder thought to be 21-year-old ex-Chelsea man Pierre Ekwah.

The two clubs have recent history with Frederik Alves joining on loan last season, whilst Aji Alese made the permanent switch to the Stadium of Light from London Stadium during the summer.

Should he sign, Ekwah would become the club’s first signing of the January transfer window with Sunderland in the market for cover and competition for Corry Evans on the number six role.

Shamrock Rovers sign Mart Poom’s son

Former Sunderland goalkeeper Mart Poom’s son, Markus Poom, has joined Shamrock Rovers in Ireland.

The Estonian international has won 13 caps so far. Poom was born in Derby, where his dad played from 1997-2003 before moving on to play for Sunderland and then Arsenal.

The midfielder joins on a season-long loan from Flora Tallinn, the Estonian champions, during January.

Rovers’ head coach, Stephen Bradley said: “We really like his attributes and how he plays the game. We’ve watched him now for a long period of time, before we played Flora Tallinn [in 2021] when we would have watched a lot of them.

“We’ve been enquiring about him for quite some time but in the last 6-8 weeks we’ve known that it might be a possibility to get him in. Once we felt that the club was willing to do a deal with us, Stephen McPhail worked extremely hard to go and make it happen.

“He brings a lot of high-level experience, so he’ll definitely add to the group in that regard.

“Markus would tell you that he favours a number 8 position as a box-to-box midfielder, but we’ve seen him playing deep-lying and as a 10, so he’s played different roles in that midfield area. What I think you’ll see is that he’s an all-rounder that can do everything. It’s just about getting him in and getting him used to the way we play as quickly as possible.”