The Republic of Ireland international was signed by Steve Bruce in 2011 but did not get the chance to play on a regular basis until Martin O'Neill came to the Stadium of Light.

McClean appeared to fall out of favour under new boss Paolo Di Canio and, with a large influx of new blood on Wearside this summer, he has been allowed to move on.

McClean, who becomes Owen Coyle's tenth signing of the summer transfer window, said: "I'm delighted to be signing, it's happened very quickly but as soon as I found out the gaffer was interested I wanted to come.

"You can see this is a club moving in the right direction again and I can't wait to be a part of that.

"I know James McCarthy very well and he's said only good things about the place so I'm really looking forward to getting started and meeting everyone."