Ever since leaving (soon-to-be-renamed Martin O'Neill's) Stoke City, Jon Walters has struggled to catch a break. The moved to Burnley last summer signaled plenty of promise, but an early knee injury sidelined him for months, with Walters only last month returning the first-team squad. In the few weeks since, Walters has struggled to nail down a starting berth: perhaps understandable, given Burnley's is a consistent squad flying very high in the Premier League.
While Walters' start to life at Burnley is not what he would have wished, we would still be surprised if he accedes to a very strange transfer rumour emanating from the north-east.
According to The Irish Sun, Sunderland manager Chris Coleman wants to bring Walters to the Stadium of Light to help the club avoid a second relegation into League One.
With virtually no money to spend, Coleman wants to take Walters on loan with a view to signing him permanently at the end of the season. Coleman is short a striker - he has lost Lewis Grabban - but wants to bring in Walters along with Liverpool's Ben Woodburn, whom he hopes to sign on loan, too, having worked with the youngster at international level.
The report claims that Burnley will want to make a permanent transfer mandatory if Sunderland avoid the drop, and are happy to sell him at the end of the season.
