TUAFC is delighted to announce the loan signing of highly rated attacking midfielder Stephen Wearne from Sunderland until the end of the season.
The 21-year-old came off the bench to score on his senior debut for The Black Cats away at Lincoln City in the Papa Johns Trophy; Wearne followed this up with 90 minutes against Manchester United’s U21 side and scored the winner in the 66th minute.
One of Sunderland’s exciting young prospects, Wearne has scored one goal in seven appearances for the U23 side this season after being one of six under-23 players to have been offered a new deal over the summer, following The Black Cats U23 side reaching the PL2 Play-Off Final last term.
Wearne began his career in the youth ranks at Newcastle United before making the switch to Middlesbrough where he established himself as a regular in their U18 and U23 sides and put pen to paper on a professional contract in 2019. He then signed on for Sunderland’s development side in September 2020.
Gary Johnson is delighted to have secured the service of one of Sunderland’s promising young prospects:
“As always, I am always delighted to find a loan player to add to our squad, so we welcome Stephen Wearne to our club.
“Stephen has been on the fringes of Sunderland’s first team squad on a few occasions and he’s been playing in the under-23s as well so he comes here fit and looking forward to playing regular games.
“Myself and Lee, we’ve been in contact with each other, obviously on lots of occasions, about family matters, and professional matters – and on this one I asked Lee to let me know when he’s ready to loan Stephen out.
“I actually saw him in the Man United game and was very impressed in the Papa Johns Trophy game that they won and he scored. So I got that call a few days ago and Lee said he’s ready to let us have him now which is great timing as we lost a couple of loans and its worked out nicely for Stephen, for us, and for Sunderland.
“Of course I know Lee’s game and he knows mine, so we both know that Stephen Wearne will fit into our system very well.”