According to the Chronicle’s James Hunter on Twitter (below), young Sunderland striker Joel Asoro is closing in on a move away from the club.
It’s not been the greatest of recent seasons for long-suffering Sunderland fans. They saw their side drop from the Premier League two seasons ago. Then last season they went straight down again, relegated into the third tier of football – Sky Bet League One.
With such relegations often comes the sale of players who are no longer prepared to play at such a lowly level. That is true in Sunderland’s case, and particularly so of Black Cat’s young striker Joel Asoro:
Ross says Asoro’s move is getting closer. No other incomings/outgoings imminent. #safc
— James Hunter (@JHunterChron) July 10, 2018
Hunter’s tweet (above) adds a little more gloss to an earlier story on the Chronicle Live website that stated the Wearsiders had accepted a £2 million bid from Swansea City for the Sweden Under-21 striker’s services.
19-year-old striker Asoro joined Sunderland from Swedish side IF Bromma Under-19s in 2015 when aged just 16. He featured for the Under-23s on arrival – playing 23 games, scoring three goals and laying on a single assist.
Last season he featured heavily in the Black Cats doomed Championship campaign – making 33 appearances across the season, scoring three goals and providing two assists.
Writing later on the Chronicle Live website, Hunter said of Asoro’s departure that it was “inevitable” adding: “We made the plans yesterday for today’s game and Joel was scheduled to play the last half-hour, but things have moved on in terms of him possibly leaving the club.”
Swansea will be hoping that his capture, and their style of play, will allow the youngster to drop back onto the rich seam of potential and performance that he has shown as a youngster for the Swedish youth set-up.
In 27 games at Under-16 (10 games) and Under-17 (17 games), the fleet-footed centre-forward scored a total of 20 goals. That kind of potential, if tapped into, could help reignite Swansea’s spluttering attackers.
