THERE will inevitably be ups and downs along the way, but having watched Patrick Roberts and Jack Clarke at close quarters in the last few weeks, Tony Mowbray is confident he can get Sunderland’s wing wizards back to the levels they were displaying when they were two of the most highly-rated prospects in the country in the early stages of their career.

Roberts spent his formative days in the youth system at Manchester City, and won league titles with Celtic as well as playing with England Under-21s as he embarked on a series of loan spells that eventually culminated in him ending up at Sunderland.

Clarke burst onto the scene at Leeds United and made a £10m move to Tottenham in 2019, such was the level of the regard in which he was held.

It is safe to say that neither player’s career has really panned out as planned, but having purred over their performances in both training and matches, Mowbray maintains there is no ceiling to what they could still go on to achieve.

“Potentially, I think they’ve got huge futures in front of them,” said the Sunderland boss. “It’s been up and down for them. The talent of Patrick Roberts is scary when you look at that left foot and how tight he keeps that ball, and yet something happened to knock him back a bit that I’m unaware of because I’ve been doing my own thing at my own club.

“With total respect to Sunderland, how he was playing in a team in League One with the talent that he’s got is quite remarkable really. Yet I’m obviously delighted that he’s here with this football team and we can utilise his talent to help the team win football matches.

“It’s the same with Jack really. Once upon a time, he went for £10m to Tottenham Hotspur, one of the biggest clubs in the Premier League. For whatever reason, it didn’t quite work out for him, yet I can see every day why that happened and why someone at Tottenham decided to take him. The talent is undoubtedly there – my job is to help him express his talent on the pitch.”

On their day, both Roberts and Clarke stand out as much too good to be playing in the Championship. Yet as Mowbray concedes, there are also matches where their standards dip.

“I sat here and spoke about how amazing Jack was against Rotherham, and yet I think he kept on trying to pass the ball to the pie seller in the stand when he was playing against Middlesbrough,” he said. “I think that’s just youthful inconsistency, but the trade off is that most players will never have the talent that Jack Clarke’s got.”

With Ellis Simms still unavailable because of the toe injury he sustained against Reading, both Roberts and Clarke will remain in Sunderland’s starting side for today’s game with Preston.

Mowbray’s main selection dilemma comes at left-back, with Dennis Cirkin available again after shaking off a hamstring injury, but his replacement, Aji Alese, having impressed in the games against Reading and Watford.


Sunderland (probable, 4-3-3): Patterson; Gooch, O’Nien, Batth, Alese; Neil, Evans, Embleton; Roberts, Pritchard, Clarke.