Sunderland skipper Dan Neil praises winger Romaine Mundle.
JACK CLARKE’S exit has inevitably left a hole in Sunderland’s squad, but the winger’s former team-mates were always confident Romaine Mundle was capable of stepping up to fill it.
Clarke finally joined Ipswich Town last month after a long-running saga that saw the 23-year-old repeatedly linked with a potential move away from Wearside.
Having turned down previous offers in the past, the Sunderland hierarchy decided to cash in this summer partly because Clarke had entered the final two years of his contract and was unlikely to hold his value. However, another factor in their thinking was the presence of Mundle, another left winger who was waiting for a chance to impress after moving to Wearside from Standard Liege at the start of February.
With Clarke ahead of him in the pecking order, Mundle made just five senior starts in the second half of last season, but when his fellow wide-man left last month, he was promoted to Regis Le Bris’ starting side for the home game with Burnley.
He scored Sunderland’s winner against the Clarets, and has added further goals in his last two games against Portsmouth and Plymouth.
His tally of three goals makes him the joint-fifth highest scorer in the whole of the Championship, and while no one is claiming he is a like-for-like replacement for Clarke just yet, his Sunderland team-mate, Dan Neil, was sufficiently impressed with his performances in pre-season to be confident he was capable of at least partially plugging the gap.
“Romaine has been brilliant,” said Neil, who was handed the captain’s armband earlier this summer. “It was tough for him when he first came in because Jack was kind of the main man but even from the start of pre-season, I think he’s been one of the best players in the group and especially in training.
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“Jack has gone to the Premier League and we’re all buzzing for him personally, he earned that chance to step up. That’s given Romaine the chance to step up and try to fill those shoes and I think he could have sank or swam really, and he’s definitely swam. He’s improving from game to game, he’s been brilliant so far and long may that continue.”
While Clarke’s departure might have hogged the headlines in the latter stages of the summer window, Sunderland busied themselves bringing in a number of signings of their own.
Their midfield ranks were swelled by the addition of Salis Abdul Samed, who is about a week away from returning to action after suffering a minor setback, Wilson Isidor, who made his second substitute appearance against Plymouth at the weekend, and Milan Aleksic, who was an unused substitute at Home Park.
All three will hope to claim a first-team spot in the next few weeks, with Neil relishing the added competition in his area of the field. Sunderland also have Alan Browne, Jobe Bellingham and Chris Rigg as central-midfield options as well as Patrick Roberts and Ian Poveda, who will be looking to play out wide.
“I think we’ve got five good players in (central) midfield now, six including Milan,” said Neil. “I think that competition is really good, we can be utilised in different areas of the pitch and I think that’s the beauty of the options we now have.
“We can all play as the sitter or as an eight, the gaffer has different options he can choose from. We all know that we’re going to have to fight to keep the shirt, and I think that competition is good for the squad.”
Some of Sunderland’s fringe performers are likely to be involved for the Under-21s in this evening’s Premier League International Cup game against Borussia Monchengladbach at Eppleton.
The Black Cats are likely to name a similar side to the line-up that drew 2-2 with Atletico Madrid last week and featured Poveda, Nazariy Rusyn and Jewison Benette as well as goalscorer Tommy Watson.
