{"id":576961,"date":"2021-01-02T16:21:29","date_gmt":"2021-01-02T21:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=576961"},"modified":"2021-01-02T16:21:29","modified_gmt":"2021-01-02T21:21:29","slug":"sunderland-transfer-news-black-cats-eye-forest-green-rovers-captain-carl-winchester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/01\/02\/sunderland-transfer-news-black-cats-eye-forest-green-rovers-captain-carl-winchester\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunderland Transfer News: Black Cats Eye Forest Green Rovers Captain Carl Winchester"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to recent reports, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/sunderland\/\" target=\"_self\">Sunderland<\/a> are closing in on <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/12\/22\/report-barnsley-have-offer-accepted-for-forest-green-rovers-defender-liam-kitching\/\" target=\"_self\">Forest Green Rovers<\/a> captain Carl Winchester. Richard Mennear of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sunderlandecho.com\/sport\/football\/sunderland-afc\/sunderland-target-forest-green-rovers-captain-carl-winchester-january-window-3083697\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sunderland Echo<\/a> and Jon Palmer of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk\/sport\/football\/football-news\/sunderland-chasing-forest-green-rovers-4850351\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gloucestershire Live<\/a> believe that Sunderland head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/12\/14\/lee-johnson-changing-sunderland-better\/\" target=\"_self\">Lee Johnson<\/a> is keen to be reunited with the midfielder. Winchester has six months on his current contract at Rovers.<\/p>\n<h2>Forest Green Rovers Captain Carl Winchester Could be Sunderland Bound<\/h2>\n<h3>Lee Johnson Keen to Sign the Right Players<\/h3>\n<p>Following Sunderland\u2019s draw at<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/12\/28\/alan-sheehan-extends-northampton-town-stay\/\" target=\"_self\"> Northampton Town<\/a>, the Black Cats first game since December 15, Lee Johnson was asked about the January transfer window. Speaking to the Echo, he said: &#8220;We\u2019ve got very healthy lists and information to go with those lists, and I\u2019m very conscious when bringing any player in that the group sits well with it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sometimes it\u2019ll be an unfashionable signing, sometimes it\u2019ll be a fashionable signing \u2013 and I guess people just have to trust over a period of time that we make the right decision for the long-term future of the club in terms of getting better instantly and over a period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Johnson has Worked With Carl Winchester Previously<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/12\/16\/lee-johnson-furious-sunderland-game-went-ahead\/\" target=\"_self\">Lee Johnson<\/a> and Carl Winchester are no strangers to each other. The midfielder played under Johnson when the now Sunderland head coach was the manager at <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/11\/10\/french-defender-raphael-diarra-joins-oldham-athletic\/\" target=\"_self\">Oldham Athletic<\/a>. Winchester played for Johnson for three of his six-and-half-years at Oldham. The two will know each other well and Johnson will believe that the 27-year-old will fit in well with the current squad.<\/p>\n<h3>Who is Carl Winchester?<\/h3>\n<p>Winchester is a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/04\/08\/team-of-the-decade-northern-ireland\/\" target=\"_self\">Northern Ireland<\/a> international; however, his last cap was in 2011 against <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/04\/09\/team-of-the-decade-wales\/\" target=\"_self\">Wales<\/a>. He has spent his entire career in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/12\/07\/fifa-world-cup-qualifying-draw-england-to-face-poland-and-hungary\/\" target=\"_self\">England<\/a> playing in League One or League Two. After moving from Linfield, he spent six-and-half-years at Oldham Athletic playing in League One before departing. He moved on to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/12\/07\/cheltenham-town-promotion-push-continues-in-their-best-ever-start-to-a-football-league-season\/\" target=\"_self\">Cheltenham Town<\/a> in League Two before signing for Forest Green Rovers in 2018. Winchester has played over 320 games, scoring 25 goals.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"7PV4Pg9nSNBviZtYFZsc3Q\" 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\/1293723745\" 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:'7PV4Pg9nSNBviZtYFZsc3Q',sig:'Kvpdj-Tqska5Ei9wVGr17L-y58BG57Hpl7CSe1HcIZw=',w:'594px',h:'413px',items:'1293723745',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 head coach Lee Johnson is keen to be reunited with midfielder Carl Winchester who is the current captain of Forest Green Rovers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":576987,"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":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,34,30,7188,22,28],"tags":[7369,168,657,827,90,1297,1356,35,6579,136],"class_list":["post-576961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-football","category-league12","category-news","category-rumours","category-sunderland","category-transfers","tag-carl-winchester","tag-efl","tag-efl-league-one","tag-efl-league-two","tag-fifa","tag-football-transfer-news","tag-forest-green-rovers","tag-sunderland","tag-sunderland-transfer-news","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576961","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\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}