Boss of League One rival reveals Sunderland missed out on this 'phenomenal signing’

Gorrin - who had a five-year spell at Sunderland’s academy between 2009 and 2014 - has impressed for League One play-off hopefuls Oxford this season with Robinson hailing him as ‘a phenomenal signing’.

The 26-year-old central midfielder joined from Motherwell.

Robinson said: “The one person that gels most of our good play together is Alex Gorrin – he is a phenomenal signing for this club.

“Does he frustrate me and do silly things? Yes, but he’s the hardest-working man I’ve coached and he’s so desperate to do well.

“I can’t get this boy out of my head because of how good he’s been this year.

“I’ll sometimes come in on a day off and he’s out there with a bag of balls on his own.

“We finished training the other week and I was looking for him for a meeting, but he had joined in with the under 18s.

“I was sat at a game the other week and I was speaking to someone at a Championship club, he asked who has been my best player and I said Alex had been one of the best.

“The guy didn’t know who he was, which shows how good the recruitment was in the summer.

“We only had some small competition from Sunderland, but other than that it was quite an easy one to get done. We’re very thankful he’s here.”