Young Sunderland defender Aji Alese was born on this day in 2001. He arrived in summer 2022 from West Ham and has gone on to make 27 appearances for the Lads so far.
He hadn’t played much senior football prior to his arrival, only playing in really brief loan spells at Accrington and Cambridge. But he had made a Europa League appearance for West Ham, playing the full 90 against Dynamo Zagreb. So Hammers fans were pretty annoyed, and confused, when it was announced that Sunderland had signed Alese on a permanent deal. He was highly-rated among both the fanbase and within the academy system, but David Moyes apparently had the final decision to let him go.
Initially he was eased into the side, appearing off the bench for late cameos in the Championship. His first start for the club came in the League Cup as we put a second-string side out against Sheffield Wednesday. Alese actually looked out of his depth against League One opposition, so understandably we fans were apprehensive about his chances in the Championship.
But after another month or so on the bench, Aji was thrown into the team to start against Reading, filling in at left-back (or left centre-back) in Dennis Cirkin’s absence. He didn’t put a foot wrong, and retained his place in the side for the next game at Watford. It was here where he scored his first senior goal, bundling the ball over the line as we drew 2-2. Incidentally, Jewison Bennette also scored his first goal for SAFC in that game.
He would go on to start the next five games as our form in the Championship dipped but he suffered an ankle injury and he spent a short period out of the squad. Owing to his quality, as soon as he had recovered he was brought straight back into the starting XI but after three starts he would suffer another injury (this time to his foot) and would spend another short period out of action.
Alese was once again placed straight back into the team upon recovery and would feature in the next 10 fixtures, helping us keep clean sheets against Middlesbrough, Reading and QPR. An unwanted trilogy of injury setbacks would then be completed as his thigh saw him be absent for our late run into the play offs that culminated in a 3-0 win over Preston on the final day.
Aji's absence was clearly felt as our team went into the play off semi finals without any height, in the first leg we did win 2-1 but we conceded from a corner that kept Luton in the tie. We were of course defeated 2-0 in the return leg and this saw us miss out on Wembley and a play off final, both goals were from corners and Alese could only manage just over half an hour after we had already conceded.
This season, unfortunately his thigh problem followed him into the new campaign. He couldn't play in our first 26 games but has recently came back. He's looked pretty good so far and if we are going to reach the top six this time around we will definitely need the left back's assistance.
