Would Shrewsbury Town’s Stefan Payne cap brilliant Sunderland triple-swoop?

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Sunderland are looking at League Two promotion chasers Shrewsbury Town as they look for players after their relgation from the Championship.

Sunderland appear to be already preparing for life in League One with their Championship survival hopes hanging by a thread.

According to The Sun, The Black Cats are hoping that signing a number of promising, affordable players who are proven in English football’s third tier will help stop this dramatic and unrelenting decline.

So that explains why they are in the market for two players currently thriving at Shrewsbury Town, perhaps the biggest surprise package anywhere in the Football League right now.

Relegation favourites at the start of the season, Paul Hurst’s Shrews are remarkably second in League One with a month remaining in the campaign. And according to the Shropshire Star, the form of centre-back Aristotle Nsiale and nine-goal midfield talisman Jon Nolan has caught Sunderland’s eye.

But there is one player in Shrewsbury’s squad who has more goals than Nolan this season and he too should be on Chris Coleman’s radar.

Stefan Payne might not have made the grade at Barnsley but, since joining Shrewsbury on a permanent deal in 2017, has been excellent. He has 10 league goals for The Shrews in just 19 starts in a stellar breakthrough campaign. He would offer speed, directness and a real composure one-on-one.

The fact he only has one year remaining on his contract should not go unnoticed at Sunderland, particularly with the club’s attacking options set to be decreased once Ashley Fletcher returns from his loan spell at Middlesbrough.