Championship side Sunderland poised to swoop for free agent Aaron Connolly and allow him to revive his career

The Galway native was released by Hull City at the end of last season and while he was linked with a few clubs, including Celtic, while a return to Hull was also floated at one stage, the new season began with Connolly remaining a free agent.

Sunderland have expressed an interest and a move is due to be completed in the coming days, a deal that will see him link up with international teammate Alan Browne.

The Black Cats began the new season in good form under boss Regis Le Bris. Despite a setback with a loss to Plymouth, they responded with a derby win at home to Middlesbrough last weekend to stay in the top two in the Championship table.

Still only 24, Connolly will have a point to prove with Sunderland after some testing spells in his career. Starting at Brighton, where he peaked with a two-goal blast in a 3-0 Premier League win over Tottenham in 2019, he was loaned out to Middlesbrough and Venezia for unhappy stints before a move to Hull, initially on loan and then permanently, saw him regain confidence, scoring eight goals in 30 games last season.

Connolly's international career has also had its tests. Handed a senior debut by Mick McCarthy in 2019, he struggled to make an impact and dropped back down to the U-21 squad on a couple of occasions, while an outing as a sub in a Euro qualifying defeat to France in Paris last year has been his only senior cap in the last three years.

Speaking to the Irish Independent last year, the Galway man admitted he had taken some wrong turns in his career and was held back by his own attitude at times.

"It's a case of me growing up, I was young when I started playing in the best league in the world, the league I had always grown up speaking to people about playing in, wanting to play one game in the Premier League, even.

"And I just got carried away with the situation I found myself in, I was young and I wasn't used to that type of attention or spotlight on me. It was like a big pressure cooker of playing Premier League football every week," he said.

"The lifestyle I am living now, that's another reason why I am playing well and enjoying my football. I am around people who care about me as a person, not just a footballer.

"You hear so many stories about people getting in with the wrong crowd, being friendly with people who you think are your pals, but they're not. You can get so distracted by that. It's tough to trust people properly as you don't know their intentions. If they actually care for you as a person or is it just what you can provide them with.

"Once I pulled myself away from that, I had six months away from that, I came to Hull and people have started to see this is the real me, the player they thought they were getting four or five years ago. It's just taken a while for that player to come out.

"When I was younger, in the Brighton U-23s, I could get away with not being as professional as I should have been. You get caught out. If you are not up to scratch in every way, from Monday to Friday, the way you live your life off the pitch. If you have any of that wrong in your life and you are trying to play against a Van Dijk or John Stones, you will get found out. You won't last very long at that level and I didn't appreciate that then."