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Wilder explains Sharp decision
Sheffield United striker Billy Sharp has been strongly linked with Sunderland all summer and his current lack of playing time for the Blades may see him become available before the loan window ends at the end of August.
The 32-year-old has only played 11 minutes for United in their two defeats to Swansea City and Middlesbrough, and speaking about his decision to leave out Sharp - and midfielder Mark Duffy - Chris Wilder explained that he felt new signing David McGoldrick was the better partner for Leon Clarke:
We set up a shape in midfield to play a three, and it worked well in pre-season against Inter Milan so we felt that was the shape we wanted to work with.
Duff has to be patient and wait for his chance. We’re judged on the results and possibly if we’d won on Saturday, there wouldn’t be such a clamour for him to start.
David McGoldrick has done well so far and in pre-season we felt he’d be the best partner for Leon, and we live and die by our decisions.
We’ve got a group of players desperate to get in the team and be part of it, and Duff is a crowd favourite. He did something last season that gave him God-like status at the club, and Billy’s the same.
I get it, that’s opinion and if I’ve picked the right side over the last two seasons I get credit, as we’ve got decent results. But if not, I’m open to criticism. That’s football.
I’ve been in tougher situations than this over my career and I’ve said to the players that we have to show what we’re about now. There’s a bit of doubt flying about and we have to turn that around.
It will be interesting to see if Sharp features against Queens Park Rangers later today.
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Wilson features
Another striker linked with a move to Sunderland is Manchester United youngster James Wilson and the forward was in action for their under-23s last night.
Wilson started in the 2-2 draw against Fulham but was surprisingly taken off at half-time at Motspur Park.
The 22-year-old’s future at Old Trafford is in doubt with the player only having one year remaining on his contract and in a further blow to his Manchester United career, he wasn’t given a number when United announced their squad numbers yesterday.
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Connolly talks Sunderland
Sunderland travel to Kenilworth Road later today to take on Luton Town, and the last time we made this trip for a league game we clinched the Championship title thanks to a 5-0 win.
A scorer on that day David Connolly was talking ahead of the match and is disappointed that the club now find themselves in League One, with the striker blaming former owner Ellis Short for the club’s woes:
With Sunderland, it’s a real shame with what happened after Ellis Short came in. From speaking to people at the club, he wasn’t there most of the time.
If you aren’t going to be there, at least appoint people with knowledge of how to run a football club.
They have had no structure or template for their management. They seem to lurch from one appointment to the next -one completely different style to the next- without really giving too much time to any of them.
I enjoyed my time at the club. I knew Roy from the Ireland set up and when he offered me the chance to join, I didn’t hesitate. We had a tough start, but we turned it around and ended up gaining promotion quite comfortably in the end. With the fans behind you, it’s a great place to play football.
It’s really sad to see where they are and they have a mountain to climb now.
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Academy manager holds Q&A
The open nature of the new Sunderland hierarchy continues, as new academy manager Paul Reid took to Twitter last night to hold a question and answer session with fans. Where he explained the academy’s philosophy, how the youngsters will differ from the first-team and revealed that we had strengthened the youth ranks with a player from France.
More great work being done by the staff within the @SunderlandAFC academy this week. We’re really starting to make progress.
— Paul Reid (@paulreid06) August 10, 2018
If any of our supporters have any questions or comments regarding the academy, please feel to let me know.
Great question
— Paul Reid (@paulreid06) August 10, 2018
Some core elements of the gaffers philosophy will be implemented across the academy. That will be alongside a holistic approach to the players development. Doesn’t make sense to only teach them one way.
We want to give a well rounded football knowledge. Teaching them how to play direct gives them another viewpoint. It also educates them on how to combat that style. They have first hand knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses.
— Paul Reid (@paulreid06) August 10, 2018
The scouting network is primarily UK based but we use contacts across Europe. We’ve just signed a young player from France and have another European player on trial soon.
— Paul Reid (@paulreid06) August 10, 2018
The loan strategy is a key part of our development plan. How the young player and loan club are paired up needs to be researched. Then we monitor and give support. Finally it will be assessed. The player gains experience and key learning objectives going forward.
— Paul Reid (@paulreid06) August 10, 2018
Yes. They would train at the academy for us to continually monitor them whenever they were able. We keep the players integrated with us without taking anything away from the loan experience.
— Paul Reid (@paulreid06) August 10, 2018
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