QPR’s Tom Carroll has rejected the offer of a new contract and will become a free agent at the end of this month – would he be a good fit for Sunderland?
Carroll, 29, rejoined QPR for a second time in his career last summer. He’d previously spent part of the 2013/14 season on loan at the cub but would return as a permanent feature, in what was a surprise move by the Rs.
But more surprisingly was how well Carroll played in the first half of the season.
Few expected him to play a huge part in the side’s Championship season but before Christmas, he was one of the club’s more consistent performers.
That was until he picked up a knee injury which ruled him out for the remainder of the campaign. He missed almost the whole of QPR’s resurgent 2021 form and has now rejected the offer of a new contract, having only been handed a one-year deal last summer.
For Sunderland, they’re likely to say goodbye to a number of central players at the end of this month including Luke O’Nien and Max Power. Whilst O’Nien was deployed more defensive last season, Black Cats boss Lee Johnson will still need to bring in some versatile names to plug gaps across the midfield and Carroll could do exactly that.
He’s a very tidy player with a great engine. Although he’s proved a bit lightweight for the Championship at times, and injury prone too, he remains a player with great experience at the pinnacle of English football, having spent the bulk of his career with Swansea City.
He’s a very similar player to Carl Winchester which could either deter Sunderland or entice them, after the January signing from Forest Green gave some good accounts of himself.
Either way, Carroll is a really useful player who QPR wanted to keep – expect him to have plenty of offers in the summer despite his injury history, and if he can maintain some level of fitness then he’d be a great addition for a team like Sunderland who will need midfielders in the summer.
