Jack Rodwell signs for Sunderland

Manchester City to Sunderland

• Former England midfielder signs five-year contract
• ‘It’s such a good club with passionate fans,’ he says



Jack Rodwell found his opportunities at Manchester City limited after leaving Everton in 2012. Photograph: Matt West/BPI/Rex

Jack Rodwell maintains that Gus Poyet’s powers of persuasion proved responsible for his decision to join Sunderland from Manchester City ahead of several Premier League rivals.

The sometime England midfielder completed his £10m move to Wearside on Tuesday after agreeing a five-year deal following an injury-blighted two years at the Etihad Stadium.

“I met up with the head coach and all the people involved with the club,” said Rodwell. “They told me about the club and their vision and it swayed me. It’s such a good club with passionate fans and I can’t wait to get on board. This is a great place for me to be.”

The powerful 23-year-old, capped three times by the England senior side, was ranked among the most promising youngsters in the country following his emergence from Everton’s academy.

Yet after joining City for £12m in 2012 his career hit a wall. Although Rodwell’s progress was blocked partly by the presence of midfielders such as Yaya Touré in the first team, he was troubled by the persistent hamstring problems which had first begun manifesting themselves in his Goodison Park days and started only seven Premier League games for City. In total he made 26 first-team appearances, scoring twice.

Providing Poyet can get – and keep – him fit, Rodwell’s arrival represents a statement of Sunderland’s ambition and vision under their Uruguayan head coach.

Poyet hopes that the six-foot midfielder will be joined by Fabio Borini at the Stadium of Light. Borini is believed to have promised Sunderland and his current club, Liverpool, that he will decide whether to agree to a proposed £14m move to the north-east by Thursday at the latest.

Last month the Anfield board accepted Sunderland’s £14m offer for a forward who enjoyed a successful loan stint on Wearside last season but Borini has been torn by a desire to stay on Merseyside and try to force himself into Brendan Rodgers’s Liverpool’s first team.

Meanwhile Poyet – who has already signed Costel Pantilimon, Billy Jones, Jordi Gómez and Patrick van Aanholt from Manchester City, West Brom, Wigan and Chelsea respectively this summer – also hopes that Santiago Vergini will shortly complete his long-mooted move from Estudiantes. The Argentinian defender was on loan at Sunderland last spring.