Sunderland look set to come up against their former ‘exciting’ loanee as they host Leicester City tonight.
Sunderland will need to improve massively if they are to claim a single point at the Stadium of Light tonight, having endured four defeats on the bounce in the Championship.
While Leicester City have also lost three games in a row, the Foxes still sit top of the league and have a much stronger team than their opponents.
Enzo Maresca’s side over half the games that Sunderland have, while they have scored a whopping 71 goals – that’s 25 more than the Black Cats.
Sunderland will have to keep out Jamie Vardy, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Stephy Mavididi, who have a combined total of 49 goal contributions in the Championship this season.
It will also be a huge challenge for them to break down Leicester’s defence, having conceded the second lowest amount of goals so far (31). The Foxes have heavily relied on Jannik Vestegaard and Wout Faes so far, but the former’s absence means that Mike Dodds‘ side could be reunited with Callum Doyle.
Callum Doyle hadn’t made a single senior appearance when he joined Sunderland on loan as a 17 year old.
The defender went onto start 33 games in League One, before falling out of favour towards the end of his loan spell.
Doyle was brilliant for his age and received high praise from former Sunderland striker Kevin Phillips.
Speaking on Sky Sports in December 2021 (as per Sunderland Echo), Phillips said: “You just look at the lad, he’s a big powerful lad, he’s got a lovely left foot and he sits lovely in that back three with the balance on that left side.
“It shows a maturity that’s way above his age and I would imagine that has been schooled through the Manchester City academy. I think he led the under-23s that won the league last season at City.
“He went through a tricky spell but what kid doesn’t? He has come out of it the other side and is a very exciting talent.”
Doyle went onto win the UEFA European U19 Championship, before spending the following season on loan with Coventry City. He then joined Leicester in the summer and has made 10 starts, but a knee injury that kept him out of action for two months has now seen him fall down the pecking order.
Injuries and poor form now means Doyle could start against Sunderland in his first appearance for almost a month, with Leicestershire Live expecting him to be in from the start on his return to Wearside.
Do Sunderland know how to handle young players properly?
Callum Doyle was an extremely promising talent during his time at Sunderland and certainly proved fans wrong when they doubted him due to his age.
The 20-year-old, like many Sunderland youngsters in recent years, struggled with burn out though and was eventually left out of the side towards the end of the campaign.
Doyle’s experience at the Stadium of Light is like many – such as Dan Neil and Jobe – with the latter currently being forced to play week in week out, with his own form taking the brunt of it.
Doyle could have been one of our best players in League One if he had been managed correctly, but his two loan spells since suggest he could end up in the Premier League next season, so it is frustrating that we perhaps didn’t get to see the best of him.