Sunderland have tabled new contracts for four of their young stars.
Sunderland boast the youngest average squad age in the Championship at 22.6 years.
And recently, Sunderland fielded the youngest-ever Championship XI at just 20.8 years for the 4-2 defeat vs Southampton earlier this month.
There’s a clear vision at the club, and the Black Cats continue to usher in the next generation of stars, with Chris Rigg the latest making an impression.
Sunderland’s Academy of Light
Sunderland boast one of the best training and youth facilities in the Football League with their Academy of Light.
It’s produced some top players in recent times with Anthony Patterson and Dan Neil both products of the club.
Rigg is also someone who’s worked his way through the ranks and into the first-team and next season, there could be more making their mark.
And now it’s reported by Sunderland Echo that the Black Cats have tabled fresh contract offers for young quartet Dan Cameron, Luke Bell, Tom Lavery, and Jenson Jones.
The same report labels the four players as ‘four of their brightest young stars’ at Sunderland, and that, ‘barring any last-minute problems, the four players are expected to sign professional deals’.
James Copley also adds that ‘transfer interest from other clubs could, in theory, scupper Sunderland’s plans but that is thought to be unlikely as things stand’.
Sunderland table pro contracts for young quartet
Sunderland, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Kristjaan Speakman have come under some scrutiny this season.
But perhaps the overriding positive they deserve praise for is building a team full of very valuable assets in players like Patterson and Neil, and then Jack Clarke, Pierre Ekwah and more.
They’ve brought these players in or promoted them from the academy, given them first-team exposure and watched their transfer value sky rocket.
Sunderland could pocket tens of millions of pounds in the transfer market this summer and all after spending very little on the players themselves.
And the next generation of players coming through; Jones, Lavery, Cameron and Bell will all likely sign pro deals in the knowledge that they’ll get their chance in the first-team if they earn it.
Then in two, three years time, if they become first-team regulars, they’ll become valuable players, and so the cycle continues.
But there needs to be some kind of balance here.
Speakman and Louis-Dreyfus simply can’t sell every player worth anything and just keep on building and building profit.
Although profit is great, obviously, there still needs to be key players in the team; we’ve seen over the past few weeks that without experience and star quality in the team, Sunderland are a very poor Championship outfit.
But emerging news on these four Sunderland youngsters is very positive nonetheless.