Former Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce says the club turned down a big offer from Leicester for Jordan Pickford during his time at the club.
The Wearside-born goalkeeper moved to Everton in a £30m deal in 2017, and has gone on to establish himself as England's No 1, starring at last summer's World Cup.
But Allarydce, who managed the Black Cats from October 2015 to July 2016, says he always knew Pickford would go on to great things, and revealed there was interest in him a whole year before his big-money move to Merseyside.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Allardyce, who gave Pickford his first-team debut for Sunderland, said: "I knew he was going to the top when I watched him at Preston when he was on loan and I was manager of Sunderland.
“I brought him back from Preston at Christmas.
"They wanted him for the year, and he had a few games with us.
“We got offered an awful lot of money by Leicester City from Steve Walsh when I was at Sunderland.
"So it was no surprise when Walsh was director of football at Everton that he bought Pickford when Sunderland were relegated (in 2017).
“There’s not a better young goalkeeper around in Europe at the moment.”
