The January transfer window saw a slew of Sunderland players heading out of the club on loan, but one man who walked out of the door may be wishing he hadn’t now.
While Regis Le Bris made a few shrewd moves to bring in the likes of Enzo Le Fee and Jayden Danns during Sunderland’s winter window, the club were far more active in clearing the decks.
On deadline day alone, Sunderland saw Abdoullah Ba follow the likes of Adil Aouchiche and Nazariy Rusyn in securing loan moves for the rest of the season.
But, it is a less high-profile name who has caught our attention this week, after an absolutely disastrous showing for his new club in the midweek round of fixtures in League One.
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Nathan Bishop concedes four in second game as Cambridge United player
Nathan Bishop spent the first half of the season at Wycombe Wanderers, but suffered an injury after just two matches and never played for the League One side again.
He was recalled in January, and ended up making a move to Cambridge United by the end of the transfer window.
As always, we keep a keen eye on the Sunderland players out loan, but Bishop will probably want to forget his latest outing in a hurry, as Cambridge fell to a 4-0 thumping at the hands of league leaders Birmingham City in his second game for the club.
| Statistics | Nathan Bishop vs Birmingham |
|---|---|
| Saves | 9 |
| High claims | 2 |
| Saves inside box | 7 |
| Penalties saved | 1 |
| Passing accuracy | 26% |
| Long ball success | 24% |
Goals from Jay Stansfield, Kieran Dowell, and Luke Harris, plus an own goal from Liam Bennett, helped the Blues maintain their impressive charge for promotion, and were enough to give Bishop a humbling trip to the Midlands.
However, there was one saving grace: Bishop was able to save a penalty from Stansfield in the second half with the score at 3-0, with his trailing leg preventing the star striker from adding to his tally. Stansfield had beaten Bishop from the spot earlier in the first half.
In fact, Bishop did make nine saves on the night, which is no mean feat (though it is also an indication of how dominant Birmingham were, too). Unfortunately, though, his distribution was poor, with only a 26% success rate for his passing on the night.
The future is looking bleak for Nathan Bishop
Even before last night’s result, things were not looking great for Bishop when it comes to his future in the Sunderland squad.
With Anthony Patterson the number one on Wearside, and youth prospect Matty Young now flourishing on loan at Salford City, Bishop is rapidly slipping further and further down the pecking order.
Indeed, Bishop’s loan move to Cambridge is very likely more an opportunity for him to put himself in the shop window and attract attention for a move in the summer, rather than an attempt to get the 25-year-old back on track for a revival at Sunderland.
He will now be hoping his form with Cambridge can improve quickly, or those chances of a summer transfer may fade rather fast. That said, there’s no shame in being beaten by Birmingham, who are clearly far too strong for League One, so we’ll let Bishop off for this one.