Sunderland owner Stewart Donald says two of their young prospects are moving to Liverpool.

Donald has revealed two of the club's highly-rated starlets will join Liverpool this summer.

“We are having our players poached. There are two players who will go to Liverpool," Donald told Roker Report.

“We tried to keep them. We said to the parents 'If you really want to go you have to put it in writing'. The parents have written in and said 'Thank you Sunderland, we want our lads to go to Liverpool'.

“We could turn around and make that awkward and then they will go in the summer anyway.

“Or we can talk to Liverpool and try and get sell-ons, which they don't have to give us. Both of those lads, because of the relationship we've got with Liverpool which could see some players come in the other direction, we've opted for a good working relationship.

“We've asked them if they will stay and they said no. So we made a commercial decision to try and get the best arrangement."