Aberdeen are keen to complete the signing of midfielder Dylan McGeouch before the deadline to register their squad for the Europa League on Friday, The Daily Record's transfer blog (03/07, 09:52 AM) has claimed.

McGeouch only joined Sunderland from another Scottish side, Hibernian, last summer on a one year deal, but the midfielder struggled to make much of an impact at the Stadium of Light, making just 22 League One appearances for the Black Cats.

Despite that, McGeouch still did enough to trigger a one year extension on his contract with Sunderland, but manager Jack Ross is keen to offload players from his squad ahead of next season.

It is thought that Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes is still interested in signing the 26-year-old, and wants to have him available for the start of their Europa League qualifying campaign, which will start with a tie against Finish side RoPS in the first qualifying round next week.

The verdict

This feels like a move that would make sense for all parties.

Having missed out on promotion back to the Championship last season, Sunderland may now be under more pressure financially than they had expected or planned to be right now, so offloading players will be neccessary in order to steady that particular ship.

Given he struggled to make much of an impact last season, McGeouch would be an obvious candidate to be moved along in order for that to happen, particularly given the single year remaining on his contract at The Stadium of Light means this could be their last chance to raise some funds from him.

McGeouch's relative lack of opportunities at Sunderland, and his experience of football in his home country, mean that he too should be happy with this potential move, although it could be interesting to see where he goes if he has other options available.