Sunderland have snapped up Jimmy Dunne from Burnley.
Sunderland defender Jimmy Dunne has told LMFM in Ireland that he turned down Championship interest in order to sign for the club.
The Black Cats wrapped up their first signing of the January transfer window last week, taking Burnley centre back Dunne on loan for the rest of the season.
Dunne, 21, spent the first season out on loan at Scottish side Hearts, and his impressive displays attracted interest when the loan with Hearts ended earlier this month.
The Irishman, formerly of Manchester United, is looking to gain valuable experience in his loan spells, and decided to head to League One with Sunderland for his next move.
Dunne was an unused substitute in the 1-1 draw with Luton Town on Saturday afternoon, and he must work hard to break into the side ahead of either Jack Baldwin or Tom Flanagan.
Dunne has now revealed to LMFM in Ireland that he watched the now famous ‘Sunderland ‘Til I Die’ documentary series on Netflix before making his move to the Stadium of Light.
Dunne feels that Sunderland are a completely different club now from the chaotic scenes in that series, believing that the fans are totally positive about the direction the club is now heading in.
The centre back added that he had interest from bottom-end Championship clubs, but chose to join a team on the up in Sunderland rather than spending the second half of the season battling relegation.
“Yeah I’ve watched it, funnily enough I was two episodes in when I kind of found out about a bit of interest from Sunderland,” said Dunne. “I had to watch the whole documentary before making my move. That period that the club were going through, that’s shown in the documentary, it’s not really where the club are at now. They’re certainly a club who appear to be on the up, and especially with how the team is performing and how positive the fans have been around the place, it’s certainly a different club to how it’s portrayed in the documentary.”
“I had to weigh up my options. I had to consider would I be better at a Championship club who might potentially get relegated, or would I be better at a League One club that is massive – is really a Premier League club – and has a good chance of getting promoted? I thought that the best decision was to be the team on the up, rather than a team in a higher league but under the cosh all the time,” he added.
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