Sunderland were almost bullied into letting Adil Aouchiche leave in the January transfer window, with Schalke taking advantage of the Black Cats.

That’s at least according to Sport BILD. The German newspaper covers the 23-year-old today and how Sunderland were almost forced into letting him go.

The newspaper explains that Schalke’s winter business is currently impressing across the board. Edin Dzeko has been the star signing so far, still performing at 39 and creating a buzz rarely seen at Schalke in recent years.

But Aouchiche has impressed too after arriving from Sunderland. And Schalke are very happy with the deal that they got for him.

Sport BILD explain that Schalke were only able to get him thanks to the knowledge of their new head of transfers and scouting Maximilian Lüftl. He was aware of Aouchiche, who was on loan at Aberdeen at this point.

Sunderland desperation

Lüftl knew that Aberdeen’s new manager Peter Leven was unlikely to have a place for the youngster. He also knew that Sunderland ‘desperately’ needed to free a loan spot.

They needed to terminate a loan prematurely as the rules only allow clubs to loan out a maximum...