{"id":540170,"date":"2020-01-10T16:31:35","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T21:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=540170"},"modified":"2020-01-10T16:31:35","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T21:31:35","slug":"kyle-lafferty-signs-for-sunderland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/01\/10\/kyle-lafferty-signs-for-sunderland\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Lafferty Signs for Sunderland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/sunderland\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sunderland<\/a> have made their first signing of the January window. The Black Cats have signed experienced striker Kyle Lafferty on a deal until the end of the season.<\/p>\n<h2>Sunderland Sign Kyle Lafferty<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">? Welcome, Kyle! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SAFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#SAFC<\/a> have completed the signing of Kyle Lafferty, who has penned a short-term deal until the end of the 2019-20 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Full story&#8230; ?<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bTDAtTYAht\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/bTDAtTYAht<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SunderlandAFC\/status\/1215727139586179074?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 10, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>What Was Said<\/h3>\n<p>Sunderland announced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.safc.com\/news\/team-news\/2020\/january\/lafferty-signs-short-term-deal\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via their website<\/a> they had signed the experienced Northern Irishman. Lafferty arrives on a short-term deal until the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p>He is Phil Parkinson\u2019s first signing since taking over Sunderland in October.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to the Sunderland website, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.safc.com\/news\/team-news\/2020\/january\/lafferty-signs-short-term-deal\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Phil Parkinson said<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m pleased to welcome Kyle to the club and I\u2019m really looking forward to working with him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s an experienced striker who provides us with another option in the final third. He adds competition for places at the top end of the pitch, which is something I felt we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lafferty is very much a journeyman playing for the likes of Rangers, Hearts, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/norwich-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Norwich City<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/burnley\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Burnley<\/a> and Palermo. Northern Ireland\u2019s all-time top scorer is hoping to settle in the North East and help Sunderland push for promotion.<\/p>\n<p>He could be involved when Sunderland face league leaders Wycombe Wanderers. However, due to his lack of game time and match fitness, Parkinson may leave him out.<\/p>\n<h3>Lafferty Aiming to Be Sunderland\u2019s Regular Goal Scorer<\/h3>\n<p>Sunderland have struggled to score goals since their drop into League One in 2018. The Black Cats have struggled to find a consistent goal scorer since Josh Maja departed last year.<\/p>\n<p>Will Grigg, Marc McNulty and Charlie Wyke have all struggled for form and goals this season. It has been Sunderland\u2019s main problem all season.<\/p>\n<p>Phil Parkinson is expected to add more firepower in what remains of the transfer window. He will be hoping Kyle Lafferty is the man to deliver the goals for Sunderland.<\/p>\n<p>Their promotion bid has yet to really take off this season. Phil Parkinson knows Sunderland have to improve in the second half of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Lafferty is a proven goalscorer and he will be ready to fire Sunderland to the Championship. Keeping him fit will be crucial for Sunderland.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"MwPTYKeuSu1bFhty1IxksA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1125242089\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'MwPTYKeuSu1bFhty1IxksA',sig:'9C7bVP8XslTsZxd8MDzF6_lcLgXxVXpKknrtNrNrzWQ=',w:'518px',h:'594px',items:'1125242089',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sunderland have made their first signing of the January window. The Black Cats have signed experienced striker Kyle Lafferty on a deal until the end of the season. Sunderland Sign Kyle Lafferty &nbsp; ? Welcome, Kyle! #SAFC have completed the signing of Kyle Lafferty, who has penned a short-term deal until the end of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3241,"featured_media":540173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"1578693600","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,32,30,1369,28],"tags":[168,1695,4268,35,136],"class_list":["post-540170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league12","category-league-football","category-news","category-sunderland-league-football","category-transfers","tag-efl","tag-kyle-lafferty","tag-phil-parkinson","tag-sunderland","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3241"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}