PAUL McSHANE looked set to complete a €2.3 million move to Hull City last night with the Wicklow man undergoing a medical at the club yesterday prior to sorting out the details of his personal terms.
The 23-year-old appears to have been lured back to the KC Stadium on the basis that the move will provide him with greater opportunities to play first-team football.
If, as expected, the move goes through, he will join an Irish contingent at the club that already includes Kevin Kilbane, Caleb Folan and Stephen Hunt.
McShane enjoyed a successful loan spell with Hull during the early part of last season, playing nearly 20 games and scoring one rather memorable goal, the opener in the club’s 2-2 draw at Anfield in mid-December.
He arrived at Sunderland from West Brom for around €1.8 million, signed by Roy Keane a year after moving to the Hawthorns from Manchester United where he had spent several seasons in the underage ranks.
He quickly established himself in the first team but then fell out of favour and Keane allowed him to go out on loan. Keane’s replacement, Ricky Sbagia, recalled McShane as he prepared to battle against relegation over the second half of the season.
The defender has missed the opening part of the new campaign due to a knee injury picked up in a pre-season friendly but Steve Bruce suggested recently that his recovery from the surgery was progressing more quickly than expected and that he would soon be back in full training.
The injury ruled McShane out of the Ireland squads for Australia and next week’s game against Cyprus but he has still earned 16 senior caps, having made his debut against the Czech Republic at Lansdowne Road, days after Ireland’s humiliation in Cyprus in October 2006.
Andy Reid, meanwhile, is hoping that his performance, and two goals, in the 4-1 League Cup defeat of Norwich on Monday night will help him re-establish himself as a first team regular at Sunderland.
Both of Reid’s goals in the game served to underline the extent of his natural talent and the 27-year-old was clearly pleased with his efforts afterwards.
“I thought the second one was a fantastic goal, to be honest with you,” he said. “I thought it was a better goal than my first one.
“The move was brilliant, it was one-touch football and Frazier (Campbell) played a fantastic reverse ball. I managed to make a good run and lose my marker and finish it, which was nice. It was a really, really good goal and a good advert for what the team is all about.”
Bruce expressed his satisfaction with the team’s performance after a game in which Daryl Murphy played for the second half and Roy O’Donovan was an unused substitute, with the manager highlighting Reid’s showing as one of the most pleasing things to com out of the night from a Sunderland perspective.
But, he said: “I don’t think anyone has ever questioned his ability, the one thing which has been levelled at him is his physical condition.
“Now, he has lost something like nine kilograms and 22 millimetres of body fat. He has always been blessed with ability, and now has got himself in a condition which you have to be.”
Reid needs to re-establish himself in the Sunderland team to have any chance of reviving his international career under Giovanni Trapattoni.
The Italian continued to ignore the Dubliner having criticised the player’s attitude in the wake of the trip to Mainz for the qualifier against Georgia last year.
