News: Ex-Sunderland striker reveals how he almost re-signed for the club last season

In an exclusive interview with Roker Report (which will be online at 12pm today) Martyn Waghorn has revealed that he almost re-signed for the club last season when Simon Grayson was Sunderland manager.

The striker - who came through the club’s academy and made his debut under Roy Keane - told Roker Report’s Graham Falk that he wanted the move so badly that he tried to push it through himself, but ultimately the club’s lack of funds meant it never came off:

There was a lot of talk between myself, my agent and Sunderland but Sunderland needed to move players out to make the move happen and they couldn’t get them out at that time fast enough for the move to happen.

I was on their list of a few potential players and I’ll admit I tried to push the move through, but Sunderland had a lot of players on their hands at that time on big wages and the move had to be right for them. They couldn’t shift them following relegation for the move to happen and the financials meant it could happen.

Did I want it to happen? Absolutely.

Waghorn then added that he was devastated when he found out that the club weren’t able to follow up on their initial enquiries:

I remember I sat in the car with my agent in Glasgow and he said “okay, there’s clubs interested, but unfortunately we don’t have Sunderland” and I just went “argh...s**t”, because I knew it was close, but it was a case of they needed to move a player out to balance the wages etc. That player didn’t move and it fell through. That’s football I guess.

Hopefully I can come back in the future though, who knows.

The full interview - in which Waghorn talks at length about coming through at the club, playing under Roy Keane, Sven Goran-Eriksson and Frank Lampard, playing in the Old Firm derby and much more - will be available to read here on RokerReport.com from 12pm today.