After Sunderland announced the signing of Nathan Bishop from Man United, we spoke to Sunderland fan and former Red Devils keeper Paul Woolston to discuss how he thinks Bishop will do...
From your time at MUFC what can you tell us about Bishop? What are his main assets?
He’s a lad that gives it his all and his work ethic is second to none. He worked day in day out with, in my opinion, one of the greatest goalkeepers the Premier League has been able to see. Hopefully he can bring what he learned from that to the north east.
Is he a good lad?
Aye he’s a good lad, a great character around the dressing room and it showed with the send off he got from everyone at Man United.
Do you think he’ll be able to push Patto for first team minutes?
I think coming here he will obviously be pushing Patto for that number one spot and it’s good to have that competition for the place. It will be interesting to see how they manage the situation, playing against Crewe will probably be the start for him. You look at the season he had with Mansfield two seasons ago and was probably hoping to go and play last season, but unfortunately didn’t get out on loan again. And now he’s coming to us as, not a 'number two' because I disagree with that phrase all together, but as a number one or one-and-a-half pushing to play games.
Is he an upgrade on Bass?
It was obvious to everyone that the Alex Bass transfer hasn’t worked and he wasn’t ever really going to push Patto. Loaning him out to bottom half of League Two gives Bass the chance to go and play again and find his feet again, and hopefully he has a great season with Wimbledon and show why we initially signed him. So I would say it’s an upgrade in the goalkeeping department.
And finally, how do think we’ll do this season?
I think if we keep everyone fit we should have another good season, we need to build on what we did last season and take it to another level. I’d like to see more bodies through the door, I know it’s against the project but some experienced heads who know what it takes when it gets tough and who can push these young boys to the next level. I love to see we’ve changed the way we go about things but perhaps we haven't learned from certain mistakes that cost us last season.
