TRANSFER LATEST: More insight from Stewart Donald on Joel Asoro’s Sunderland departure

Stewart Donald has returned to the Roker Rapport Podcast - which will be available later today - and gave us some further insight into Joel Asoro’s recent departure.

Asoro, who joined officially joined Swansea City a few days ago on a four-year deal, had a handful of clubs interested in his services but Premier League sides saw the 19-year-old as an academy signing and Championship clubs saw him as a project.

So, the higher fee that Sunderland had floated failed to attract suitors.

The £2.5m Swansea agreed to pay for the Swedish under-21 striker was Sunderland meeting the Swans half way, and that fee will only be reached once the player makes a certain number of appearances - but there is a 15% sell-on fee in his contract.

We mentioned earlier in the week how the player could have signed for Tottenham Hotspur but for Asoro’s representative scuppering the deal due to excessive financial demands, but there were a couple of other clubs that showed an interest and they both dropped that interest after talking to his agent - unbeknownst to the player himself.

The agent was threatening to become such a problem in our efforts to sell Asoro, that - after Swansea made an offer - they had to be told:

If you cock this up again then we’re keeping him. Be sensible.

Thankfully for all parties concerned, we were able to get the deal over the line.