Sam Greenwood has claimed that he won’t let his history with Sunderland get in the way of this weekend’s match.
Speaking ahead of Middlesbrough’s trip to the Stadium of Light on Saturday, the forward has admitted he is going to have to be ‘professional’ on his return to his boyhood club.
Greenwood began his career at Hebburn Town Juniors before joining Sunderland’s academy as a child. The attacker was a very promising prospect as he came up through the ranks, but the Black Cats were ultimately unable to keep hold of him and eventually sold him to Arsenal for £500,000 in 2018.
The youngster never featured for the senior team and eventually made a £1.5 million switch to Leeds United in 2021. Greenwood made his senior debut in the FA Cup before making his senior debut before Christmas.
Greenwood picked up a lot more game-time during the Whites’ relegation campaign, making 18 appearances and scoring once before dropping down to the Championship.
The 21-year-old was then loaned to Middlesbrough and has made five appearances in the second tier, but he has only made one start for the club.
Greenwood is now preparing for a hostile return to his former club, but is ready to put his and his family’s support for Sunderland aside this weekend.
Greenwood said: “My family are all Sunderland fans, they’ll be there, but I’ve put my dad in the away end with the Boro fans. He doesn’t mind. He’s just supporting me, I’m sure he’ll want Boro to win, he supports his son all the time.
“I went to school in Sunderland as well, so literally all my mates are Sunderland fans. But I just have to be professional about it. I’m a Middlesbrough player now and I’ll fight for Middlesbrough. It’s all about the team I’m at now, so I’m going to go for the win.”
Greenwood returns
Greenwood has admitted to ‘feeling at home’ since joining Boro, though that isn’t much of a surprise when he is around 30 miles away from where he grew up. In fact, he could well be living on Wearside once again.
It will be interesting to see how he performs at the SoL, especially given the forward was one of a number of players that fans were left frustrated by when we offloaded them for pennies.
The likes of Dan Neil and Anthony Patterson will certainly be looking forward to reuniting with one of their old academy pals.