WES BROWN spent yesterday on Wearside putting the finishing touches on a move from Manchester United as teammate John O'Shea arrived this morning for a medical.

Brown was at Sunderland’s Academy of Light completing a medical, which, if successful, will end a 15-year career at Old Trafford. It is expected that Brown will be unveiled today.

Brown, who knows Kieran Richardson and Phil Bardsley from their days at United, watched his potential new team-mates yesterday as Sunderland commenced pre-season training.

It is understood that O'Shea had indicated that he would be happy to join Sunderland, but talks were put on the backburner as his wife Yvonne gave birth over the weekend.

Manager Steve Bruce said: “Yes, it looks good, we are very close, Wes is travelling up for talks and we hope to also speak with O’Shea. I would say we are inches away.”

United accepted a triple bid from Sunderland last month for Brown, O’Shea, and Darron Gibson, whose future still remains unclear.

Midfielder Gibson revealed last month that he would welcome the opportunity to work with Bruce, but the arrivals of middle men Seb Larsson and Craig Gardner could yet see the Sunderland manager place priorities elsewhere.

It is some turnaround, as a months ago it seemed that out of the three United players, Republic of Ireland international Gibson was the most likely to leave Old Trafford, with his more experienced team-mates O’Shea and Brown seemingly unwilling to uproot from the North-West.

As such, O’Shea and Brown signing for Sunderland will be quite a coup – both have been involved heavily in first-team affairs under Sir Alex Ferguson and both have enjoyed prolific international careers.

Brown can play at right-back or central defence – two positions where Sunderland are in need of new personnel in the wake of John Mensah and Nedum Onuoha’s departure from Wearside.

However, injuries have dogged what once promised to be a glittering career, with the defender making just 33 league appearances in the last three seasons.

Brown retired from England duty last year, ending an 11-year career which ended as it started, with a game against Hungary.

But as Sunderland looked to bring one player in, another one has left, with midfielder Cristian Riveros completing a season-long loan move to Turkish outfit Kayserispor.

Riveros, 28, made 14 appearances for Sunderland last season after playing for Paraguay in the World Cup.

Manager Bruce said: “Cristian wants to play regular football and hopefully he will be able to do so in Turkey. We wish him all the best.”

* Sunderland chief executive Steve Walton is to leave the club after three years.

Walton and marketing and commercial director Lesley Callaghan, who has been with the Black Cats for 19 years, will step down after agreeing to remain in their posts for two years following the club’s change of ownership in 2009.