Sunderland AFC transfer update may be bad news for QPR – Leicester City & Southampton could pounce | OneFootball

Leicester City and Southampton may have natural advantage over Queens Park Rangers in the pursuit of Sunderland goalkeeper Anthony Patterson.

With the January transfer window about to open, plenty of Championship clubs will be scouring the market to fill whatever gaps they have in their squad to potentially reshape or entirely define the second-half of their season.

The goalkeeping merry-go-round in the second-tier is certainly something to keep an eye on, with the likes of Queens Park Rangers, Leicester City and Southampton all expected to be in the market for a new 'number one’.

One man that will remain high on the list for all three clubs is Sunderland man Anthony Patterson, with reports suggesting that the Black Cats are willing to allow their former England U21 international to depart the Stadium of Light on a permanent basis this winter.

Patterson performed extremely well last season for the Wearsiders, with Regis Le Bris’ side eventually coming from behind to dramatically defeat Sheffield United in the play-off final at Wembley Stadium in late-May.

However, Sunderland’s ambitious big spending over the summer saw Patterson one of many previous key first-teamers demoted to the fringes, with Dutch shot stopper Robin Roefs brought in from NEC Nijmegen to take his spot between the sticks.

Patterson has proved himself to be way too good to be on the bench, especially at the age of 25 and having already made almost 170 first-team appearances for Sunderland.

Interest from the second-tier has been there for a while, with suggestions of a loan move to QPR, but, if it was to be a permanent deal, then surely the likes of Leicester and Saints, with their parachute payments, will now be ahead in the race.

Anthony Patterson would help QPR's goalkeeping issues

Following the appointment of Julien Stephan in the summer, replacing Marti Cifuentes, QPR have been inconsistent but entertaining to watch throughout the campaign and head into the half-way stage believing they have a real shot of a top six finish and the play-off places.

Known for his ability to nurture and develop young talent, especially in the final third, Loftus Road appears a good fit for Stephan with the abundance of attacking quality that the R’s have at their disposal.

Defensively, though, there have been issues, with Stephan clearly unsure as to who is first-choice ‘keeper would be prior to the campaign, stating that he had two very good goalkeepers in Paul Nardi and Ben Hamer, but then chopping and changing that in the early stages.

QPR have conceded 35 goals in 23 Championship matches so far this season, with only Sheffield United and crisis club Sheffield Wednesday having conceded more often than the west Londoners.

Hamer, who has been more of a covering goalkeeper for much of the last decade, made his fifth appearance of the season on Boxing Day as QPR shared a 1-1 draw with Portsmouth at Fratton Park.

Nardi, who was at Stade Rennais at the same time as Stephan was working with the Rennes ‘B’ team about ten years ago, began the season on the bench before a ten-game stretch in the side.

He was then dropped for two games before being brought back when Hamer sustained an injury against Blackburn Rovers in late-November, but has since been dropped to the bench for another two games, with Hamer regaining his fitness, and is out of contract next summer.

In terms of save percentage, Nardi has the second-worst average in the league with 63% of his shots faced being kept out by the Frenchman, while Hamer is only marginally better at 64%, according to FotMob.

It is clear that QPR’s biggest issues are defensively and, based on those statistics, it is the goalkeeping position that is most glaring at this stage of the campaign.

Leicester and Southampton could kick on with Anthony Patterson

Having both been relegated from the Premier League last season, Leicester City and Southampton have endured returns to the second-tier, but both do remain in a reasonable position to challenge for promotion once again should they discover some much-needed consistency and general improvement.

Marti Cifuentes’ Leicester were limited to just one permanent signing in the summer with experienced goalkeeper Asmir Begovic being brought in to cover for Jakub Stolarczyk.

Stolarczyk, a product of the Leicester academy, has previously experienced reasonably forgettable loan stints at Dunfermline Athletic, Fleetwood Town and Hartlepool United, but did make ten Premier League appearances for the Foxes last season and has been thrust into being first-choice at the King Power Stadium after the sale of Mads Hermansen to West Ham United.

The 25-year-old former Poland youth international has a middling record for the division in terms of his save percentage and for goals prevented. Just three clean sheets, though, and three errors leading to a goal has hampered the overall view of him, though, and an improvement, as was the case in the summer, is still required for Leicester.

The only goalkeeper with a worse save percentage in the Championship than QPR’s Nardi is Southampton stopper Gavin Bazunu, who is again the recipient of harsh criticism down at St Mary’s.

The Ireland international has not only endured a miserable campaign in terms of saving, but also has a dismal record of -5.3 in terms of goals prevented, only beaten by Michael Cooper, enduring a woeful campaign at Sheffield United.

Bazunu was known for his playing out from the back coming through at Manchester City, but even that has been fairly average in terms of going long, and a general shakiness often affecting the confidence of both the defence and the crowd.

Combining that concern and nervousness with average stats across the board for a goalkeeper, whether it be a lack of high claims (7) or failing to act as a sweeper regularly enough (4), there is room for improvement in goal for Saints, following the departure of Aaron Ramsdale to Newcastle United last summer.

Patterson kept the fourth most amount of clean sheets in the second-tier last season, behind James Trafford, Illan Meslier and Sheffield United’s Cooper and he now brings real pedigree and experience back down with him to the second-tier.

The competence and calmness he could bring would transform most of the teams pushing for the top six and a loan move would have been a dream signing for QPR, but if a permanent deal is on the cards, then surely the similarly desperate, but parachute payment-laden, sides of Leicester and Southampton will be able to move ahead of them.