Rangers will reportedly let Greg Docherty go and he could light up the Stadium of Light for Phil Parkinson’s Sunderland.
When Greg Docherty made his triumphant return to Ibrox after a superb loan spell at Shrewsbury Town, he probably didn’t expect to find himself being ushered quietly out of the back door just a few months later.
According to the Daily Record, new director of football Ross Wilson is making his presence felt at Rangers with the former Hamilton Academical midfielder just one of a number of seldom seen fringe players heading for the exit.
Jamie Murphy and Matt Polster will go too while Andy King is set to have his loan spell from Leicester City, a move which felt strange at the time and looks baffling now, cut short.
Docherty appears to on his way too with a brilliant season south of the border seemingly counting for nothing. Unlike the injury-hit Murphy and seldom-seen American Polster, who has barely made an imprint in his first year across the Atlantic, a talented, goalscoring midfielder should not struggle for suitors when his forgettable spell in Glasgow comes to an end.
Especially when you consider that one-time suitors Sunderland are more desperate than ever for a player with Docherty’s qualities in the final third. The Scottish Sun reported in the summer of 2018 that the 23-year-old had plenty of admirers at the Stadium of Light and like Aston Villa talisman John McGinn, who was actually Sunderland’s first choice, Docherty is at his best when driving forward from deep and wreaking havoc around the penalty area.
10 goals and 11 assists for Shrewsbury last season was a terrific return – and the sort of stats that should get Sunderland fans drooling.
The top scoring central midfielder in Phil Parkinson’s squad, Luke O’Nien, has just three while George Dobson, Grant Leadbitter and Max Power are not exactly renowned for their ability to hit double figures from the centre of the park. For far too long, a struggling, toothless Sunderland have looked one-paced and pedestrian in the middle – Docherty is the man to solve that.
Prolific, creative and proven in League One, what’s not to like?
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