Black Cat stopper signs up
Carlisle United have today signed Black Cats stopper Jordan Pickford on a one month youth loan deal which keeps him at Brunton Park until 8 March 2014.
Pickford, 19, joined the Sunderland academy in 2010 and has enjoyed loan spells with Darlington, Alfreton and Burton over the course of the last two seasons.
The Washington born keeper made his first team debut in a 3-2 friendly win over FC Groningen at the 2012 Peace Cup in South Korea. He has featured for England at U19 level.
"We were given an opportunity to bring Jordan in and it's one I didn't feel we could turn down," manager Graham Kavanagh said. "He's an extremely good up and coming keeper and he is very highly thought of by his club. He's a good shot stopper, he comes for crosses and he gives assurance to the back four.
"Sunderland have been good enough to let us have him for what is a very, very decent deal. He will now be involved in an intense first team environment where there is real competition for a starting place. Greg [Fleming] has done well for us in certain games and Dean [Bouzanis] has added to that mix, so Jordan will help to keep the dynamics of that group on its toes.
"We'll see how he handles himself in training and he has a chance to show us that he is ready to start tomorrow. He's in a good place in terms of readiness because he constantly trains with their first team and he has spent time with Alfreton and Burton on loan relatively recently.
"The next step in his development is to play in League One and we actually asked a question about him two weeks ago. They wanted to keep hold of him at the time but Gus Poyet called me yesterday and suggested that it was something we could now do.
"He's placed a 24-hour recall on him but he is very happy to put him in our hands. Going back just a couple of days it wasn't something I thought would come off but they have helped in a huge way financially and with the deal overall.
"We're delighted that we've got him and we're looking forward to working with him."
