Sunderland reportedly eye John McGinn, can Jack Ross succeed where Moyes failed?

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Sunderland could reportedly offer £3m for Hibernian midfielder John McGinn – despite being a League One team.

Sunderland barely spent a penny last summer as the austerity regime put in place by unpopular owner Ellis Short kept the purse-strings tight and sent the club tumbling into League One.

But with new owner Stuart Donald at the helm, and promising a transfer budget a number of Championship teams would be jealous of, it seems that age of free agents and desperate loan deals has at least come to an end.

According to the Scottish Sun, new Black Cats boss Jack Ross will encourage Sunderland to make a £3 million bid for Hibernian playmaker John McGinn, who is one of the most highly-rated and coveted players north of the border.

But can Ross do what David Moyes couldn’t and bring McGinn to Wearside?

According to The Chronicle, McGinn would have been a Sunderland player had Moyes, who had been keeping a very close eye on the 23-year-old, not resigned soon after the club finished bottom of the Premier League.

Ex-Scotland international Steven Thompson, speaking to the BBC, reckoned that a deal was close for McGinn one year ago.

But if Ross does manage to pick up where Moyes left off, the potential deal would be more impressive now than it would have been in 2017. Because Sunderland are a League One team right now and McGinn has other options like boyhood club Celtic and one or two Premier League sides.

If Sunderland do pull off a deal though, what a start to the Donald era. And Ross would already have achieved something Moyes couldn’t.