Major news has emerged about an “outstanding” £360k-rated ace who has been linked with a move to Sunderland.

What's the talk?

Scottish Premiership side St Mirren have officially confirmed the signing of left-back Scott Tanser on a free transfer from St Johnstone. The 26-year-old has put pen to paper on a one-year contract with St Mirren, with the club holding an option to extend it by a further 12 months.

According to the Sunderland Echo, Lee Johnson is eager to bring in a left-back this summer and Tanser was one of the names on the club's list of targets.

In the official announcement of Tanser's arrival at St Mirren, his new boss Jim Goodwin claimed that he was “outstanding” for St Johnstone at left wing-back. He told St Mirren's official website:

"Scott Tanser is one who knows the league and has been outstanding at left wing-back for St. Johnstone this season. He’s a very good athlete, great delivery, he was instrumental in some of the really good performances that St. Johnstone had.

"I’ve been speaking to Scott since January time, really with him and his agent trying to get something done and I’m delighted that today he has agreed to come in."

Sunderland fans will be livid

Sunderland fans will be livid at this news as the club are currently set to head into next month without a senior left-back on the books.

Callum McFadzean has been released and Denver Hume is currently in contract talks with the club over a potential extension of his deal. As it stands, Hume will become a free agent at the end of the month and Johnson will go from having two left-back options to having none.

Football League World have reported that Middlesbrough are interested in signing Hume on a free. This could make it difficult for Sunderland to keep Hume at the club as Middlesbrough could offer him a higher standard of football in the Championship. Although, it remains to be seen how interested Middlesbrough are and what wages they would be able to provide in comparison to Sunderland.

This means that missing out on Tanser is particularly painful as Sunderland are in desperate need of a left-back to come through the door. Tanser impressed in the Scottish Premiership for St Johnstone and could have been a superb addition to Johnson's squad, with an average WhoScored rating of 7.08 in 17 starts as a left wing-back.

The £360k-rated ace averaged 2.8 tackles and interceptions per game, whilst also winning an impressive 3.6 aerial battles per game in the Scottish Premiership.

Hopefully, Johnson and Sunderland have other targets in the pipeline who they can now pursue with a deal for Tanser out of the question.

With Hume's future still up in the air and McFadzean on his way out, it would be ideal for Sunderland to get a left-back in sooner rather than later instead of waiting too late and going into the season without proper cover in that position.

The Sunderland fans should be fuming that their club has got to a position where they're not only going to be going into the summer without a left-back, but also that they're being beaten to players by St Mirren.

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