PATRICK Roberts has been one of the stars of the second half of Sunderland’s season after signing a six month deal. Despite the fact that his future remains uncertain, he is grateful for his spell on Wearside and believes the club can kick on after promotion back to the Championship.

Roberts career has been a story of plenty of journey but not much stability. The former Manchester City, Celtic, Girona, Norwich City, Middlesbrough and Derby County winger has been around the block at the tender age of 25 but has never had the chance to settle at a club.

At Sunderland, his impact in the second half of the season has been there for all to see. 17 appearances and two goals, including his late strike in their play-off semi final second leg victory over Sheffield Wednesday has had a telling contribution for the club on their way back to the second tier.

Recently, he spoke of his desire to ‘settle down’ at a team which was a big reason for his move back from France away from Ligue 1 side Troyes in January. On Wearside, he’s quickly grasped the gravity of the events of the weekend.

Roberts said: “I’ve only been here six months but you can see the manager who came in and all the players that have come in and the ones that have been here, it means a lot.

“It was the aim at the start of the season, we had a rocky period with everything going on. We steadied ourself, got the wins and got the results. We can enjoy tonight and all summer.”

Whilst celebrations over Sunderland’s promotion will have gone on into the weekend, the business heads will be back on this week.

Lynden Gooch confirmed he would hold talks with the club on Tuesday over his future with the American’s contract set to come to an end in the summer. Roberts finds himself in a similar situation with his short-term deal running it’s course next month.

When asked about whether he knows where his future, Roberts replied: “No idea to be honest. I’ll think about it in the next few weeks. I’ll enjoy tonight and see where it goes from there.”

After four years in League One, Sunderland’s promotion to the Championship was sealed at the weekend after their 2-0 victory over Wycombe Wanderers. Up to 50,000 supporters were rewarded for their fierce loyalty of the years with a return to the second tier of English football.

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For the club, it brings an end to a turbulent few years. For Roberts, he feels it’s another start of another journey for Sunderland as he continued: “The stature of the club, they want to improve every year. This was just the journey to get out of this league.

“Done that and the next thing will be to build on that. Go from there and get back to the Premier League. That’s the sort games you should be involved with at Sunderland and from here, that will be my aim as well. We’ll see what happens.”

Back-to-back promotions at the Stadium of Light? “You never know,” he replied. “Football is a crazy game. You’ve got to have that belief and have that structure about them and go from there.”