Sunderland snapped up Tottenham striker Kazaiah Sterling on deadline day.
Sunderland owner Stewart Donald has talked up the club’s partnership whilst speaking to the Roker Rapport podcast – and put it down to Tony Coton.
The Black Cats were busy on deadline day last week, bringing in three new faces to bolster Jack Ross’s squad for the second half of the season.
Lewis Morgan, Kazaiah Sterling and Will Grigg all joined Sunderland on the final day of the January transfer window, with the latter the only permanent signing for the Black Cats.
Sterling was a particularly surprising signing, as the deal appeared to come out of nowhere just days after featuring for Spurs in the FA Cup against Crystal Palace.
Sterling, 20, has been coming up through the Spurs ranks since his 2015 move from Leyton Orient, and has been a consistent goalscorer for Tottenham’s under-23 side.
The young forward may only have two first-team appearances to his name, but he does look to be one for the future, and his loan move to Sunderland will hopefully give him valuable experience before returning to Spurs this summer.
Now, Sunderland owner Stewart Donald has told the Roker Rapport podcast that the deal was all down to head of recruitment Tony Coton, as he has a ‘really good’ relationship with Spurs, which helped Sunderland beat ‘six or seven’ clubs to his signature.
Donald claims that Coton had a deal for Sterling on the back burner, and Sunderland were lucky to have his connections at Spurs in the race for his signature, which may just hint at future loan deals from Spurs to Sunderland in the future too.
“That deal is Tony Coton,” said Donald. “Tony has got a really good relationship with Tottenham. There were six or seven other clubs that wanted him, and Tony kept that one on the back burner, kept it to himself. He’s very highly thought of, but luckily Tony’s relationship with Tottenham has delivered that player for us in this deal,” he added.
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