Born on this day in 1995 is Paddy McNair. The Northern Irishman joined the club on August 11 2016, in a £5.5 million joint deal that included Donald Love - the less said about the second half of the deal, the better.
McNair began his career at Manchester United after being discovered by a scout at 12-years-old playing for his local junior team, Ballyclare Colts. While being converted from a midfield player to a defender, McNair impressed Man United staff enough to be compared to Michael Carrick.
At just 19, Paddy made his first appearance for Manchester United in the Premier League after an injury crisis left the club short of defenders. In a game that saw Man United go down to ten men in the 59th minute, McNair impressed on his debut, making a critical clearance as his team held on to a 2-1 win.
With the injury crisis still ongoing for United, McNair would start the next league game against Everton, and again they would win 2-1. The versatile youngster was trusted to start for United at right-back in the FA Cup third round against Yeovil Town. After impressing again against Cambridge in a later round of the FA Cup, manager Louis Van Gaal publicly praised McNair and likened the player to Gary Neville. So, that’s a Carrick and a Neville comparison - not bad at all for a 19 year old.
After a promising start to his Manchester United career, inconsistency in McNair’s play kept him from holding down a starting place in Van Gaal’s team. Despite patchy form, McNair started ten games in the Premier League that season, displaying great potential.
However, the following season would not go to plan for McNair as he would only make two starts for Man United and would spend most of it with the under-21s.
After the 2015/16 season he would leave United and become David Moyes’ second signing for Sunderland, along with fellow teammate Donald Love. McNair was a rare bright spark in Moyes’ ridiculous recruitment, which largely consisted of former players at Everton and Man United… Oh, and an £8 million Papy Djilobodji.
McNair’s time at the Stadium of Light started in the worst possible way. Two days after signing for the club, he made his debut coming off the bench in the 83rd minute at the Etihad, only to turn a Jesus Navas cross into his own net four minutes later, gifting City a 2-1 win.
While playing at CDM, McNair would only play 49 minutes total over the next four league games, and the club was firmly planted at the bottom of the table. McNair and Sunderland fans finally had something to smile about when the Northern Irishman scored a brace against QPR in the EFL cup to guide us to a 2-1 win.
That game at the end of September was probably the last time McNair or the fans smiled that season. McNair was ruled out for the rest of the campaign due to an ACL injury, and thanks to a dreadfully managed Moyes team, Sunderland finished rooted to the bottom of the table with 24 points.
McNair returned from injury on 28 October 2017, after over 11 months out. He came off the bench twice for Simon Grayson, before the manager was given his marching orders as we sat 23rd in the Championship.
McNair would feature sporadically for new manager Chris Coleman. Still, to Sunderland fans' dismay, the league position didn’t change, and as seen on Sunderland Till I Die, fans' anger was boiling over with the Welsh manager.
Over the last eight games, McNair was given a run in the team and played well, scoring four goals. Despite this late-season form, the club were still at the bottom of the Championship and destined for League One.
After the club's relegation to League One, McNair was obviously not going to stay at the club. He was sold to Middlesbrough, where he has made over 200 appearances on Teesside.
