Fleetwood Town manager Joey Barton has claimed that Sunderland made a last-minute bid to sign Swansea City winger Barrie McKay on the final day of the January transfer window.

McKay joined Barton's side on loan for the remainder of the season in the final few hours of the winter transfer window, although it seems the Fylde Coast side were not alone in their interest in the midfielder.

Speaking to The Blackpool Gazzette about the process that eventually saw the 25-year-old make the move to Highbury, Barton said: "I couldn’t believe he was available because you would expect a Championship club or one of the big Scottish teams to take a player of his quality.

“We’d monitored him all the way through but late in the window, he was available at Fleetwood prices and luckily for us we got him signed.

“At the last minute Sunderland tried to do the deal but we had the paperwork done, so it’s nice to put one across them again."

Reflecting on his club's ability to get the deal done, the Fleetwood manager continued: “The beauty of such a small club is that there’s no real bureaucracy and we can get things done quickly. We were all in the same room on Friday night.

“At this club, everyone lives in each other’s pockets and wants the same thing. Everyone wants to see the town of Fleetwood do well.

“The speed we could move at gave us a great advantage in the market place on Friday night. We could get our business done, then relax and look forward to Saturday’s game.”

That game on Saturday saw Fleetwood beat Doncaster 2-1 to move tenth in the League One standings, five points off the play-off places ahead of their trip to AFC Wimbledon on Saturday afternoon, a game in which McKay could make his debut for the club.

The Verdict

This does look to be a very good signing for Fleetwood.

When you consider the level that McKay has played at in the past, you would certainly expect him to be capable of making an impact for the Cod Army this season.

The fact they have beaten one of their divisional rivals in Sunderland to his signature only goes to make this deal all the more important for Fleetwood in the race for promotion this season, even if Barton's comments about getting one over on the Black Cats do seem somewhat irrelevant to the whole thing.

With Fleetwood set to go to Sunderland later this month, it will certainly be interesting to see now if McKay does feature in that game, and what sort of an impact he could make on the promotion race if he does so.