Sunderland AFC news: David Moyes reveals reason West Ham let Pierre Ekwah join Black Cats

Ekwah, a versatile midfielder, penned a long-term deal at the Academy of Light that runs until the summer of 2027 earlier this week.

The 21-year-old is highly rated but struggled to break into the first-team set-up at West Ham and his potential availability put several Championship clubs on alert ahead of the window.

The Black Cats won the race, which included Stoke City, and head coach Tony Mowbray said he was a player who would ‘add something different’ to his midfield and was handed a second-half debut against Fulham in the FA Cup.

“You look at the standard of midfield players, Tomas [Soucek], Declan [Rice], now [Lucas] Paqueta,” Moyes told Football.London. “It’s really difficult to break through that. We bring Flynn [Clarke] in as well, out of the Championship.

“Will, it’s a good chance for him to go out and play at a level and develop his career. The biggest thing I feel as a manager is you want all your young players to get a career, whether it’s 15 years in the lower leagues, I really hope that’s what they do if they are not quite able to be at the top.

“If we think we can get people out on loan who can come back and be first-team players then we will do that as well. If boys who have maybe played ten or 15 games in U21s get a chance to go into the big leagues we wouldn’t really stand in their way if we think it’s right.”