Tony Mowbray was asked again about Sunderland's striker situation - significantly, he's shed some light on what he thinks of the Ross Stewart contract saga...
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"I think everyday there is a bit of movement and still there is no one through yet. I fully understand that deals are really difficult to do. The selling clubs asking price often starts high and every day we have an update. We are closer to a deal than we were yesterday, but not close enough to where I can say that we have a player coming in for tomorrow. I used to spend my whole summer doing transfer business, and I feel as if I’m stamping my feet saying where is the striker?"
PATIENCE IS KEY
"I should know because for 20 years I’ve been feeling the frustration of trying to get people through the door and that’s why a lot happens on deadline day. The striker situation will get resolved, but we have to try and get it right. Hopefully come the end of this window the team will be stronger. You don’t win and lose leagues or get promoted in the first month of the season. There are lots of teams that take a while to get going, just look at Middlesbrough last season. So, there is plenty of time and it is important that we don’t rush and get anyone old footballer in. We are working hard and everyone is staying here late to watch presentations for the next player on the list."
RIGHT NUMBER OF STRIKER
"Hopefully, we will have the right number of strikers in the building. I must say that we do have strikers, I know it sounds like I have been stamping my feet and saying that we don’t have any, but we have a few injured ones. Ross Stewart and Eliezer Mayenda. Mayenda looked really fast and dynamic in his first training session. The work is getting done behind the scenes, but I can't put a date on it."
HEMIR
"Hemir is quite a humble kid and he knows that he has moved to a new country, so he needs to climatize and get to know his surroundings. There are a lot of things that we take for granted such as having a home to go to and knowing where the supermarket is, Hemir is still finding his way. There is a lot of change going on in his life and that’s all going on whilst we expect him to bang some goals in for the team. All of the staff are pleased with his quality, but he just needs to adapt to a new environment. You have to work hard to be in our team, you have to run and work for each other. He comes from a different culture and it will take us a few months for us to mould him into the centre forward we want him to be. He’s a nice lad and he agrees that he needs to get his fitness levels up, so we will do that, but we will also give him enough game time to keep his confidence levels up."
STEWART
"Rosco was on the grass today and he was kicking balls against bounce boards with his boots on, so that’s a positive sign. I’m not sure if a time scale of a few weeks is right, it will probably be more than a few weeks before he is ready to play. I am currently thinking about six or seven weeks and who knows what will happen in the next few weeks."
RELAXED ON CONTRACT TALKS
"I think the club are pretty relaxed, we would like him to sign a new contract and we have had lots of discussions. The situation is that he’s getting himself fit and we have to see whether or not the phone rings. It could be alright down the line, I can imagine playing him upfront with Clarke and Roberts either side, and Dack supplying him with ammunition. There is no pressure on him at the moment, he has had a bad injury and he needs to make sure that he is ready to play."
INCREDIBLY GOOD OFFER
“I genuinely don’t think the club are over-stressing on it. What did he cost? It certainly wasn’t millions and millions. They’re making him offers that they think are special in the context of where our football club is at the moment. We’re not just trying to give him a good contract – we’re trying to make it an incredibly good contract for him in terms of where he is, and our club is, at the moment."
PROGRESS BUT BE CAREFUL
“Hopefully, in a few years’ time, this club will be offering lots and lots more money to their best players because the club will have progressed and either got to the Premier League or be right on the cusp of that. But as the club is building from League One, you have to be careful. I think the club are quite comfortable with it. We’re disappointed that he hasn’t got a new three, four or five-year contract under his belt, but we’re just moving forward."
LEAVE ON A FREE?
“You could say there will be implications if we don’t sell him – how much could we get for him, x amount of millions, we could invest that back into the team. Yes, and if there was a suitable bid that the club agreed with, that’s potentially what would happen. If the bid was derisory, then I’m sure we would rather have him scoring goals and helping us win football matches, and see where he could take us in the league.”
RUN THE CONTRACT DOWN
“The boy’s in control of all these situations. He’s in the last year of his contract, and if we can’t meet the needs of what he wants, then he’ll let that contract run down. The club can then decide whether they want to sell him or keep him. Then you might have a situation that we’ve seen in football lots of times before (where he plays through the final year of his deal). Ben Brereton Diaz did it at Blackburn last season. He ran his contract right down, but still scored plenty of goals last season and was working hard and was his side’s main goal threat."
HONOURED HIS CONTRACT
"If Ross Stewart decides he wants to try something different (next summer), then I think we all have to respect that and he will have honoured his contract. Hopefully, when he does play for us once he’s fit, he’s scoring goals and showing the world what a talent he is."
DIFFERENT OPTIONS
"I just want the team to be good and successful, we played without any strikers a lot last year and we scored the fourth most goals in the league. We have proven that we can play without a recognised number nine at times, and I try not to moan about it, but I just want to give this team the best opportunity to play against other teams in different ways. For example, we could play with a striker down the middle, or two strikers running the channels, or even with a false nine. I just think the options are a bit short at the moment, I’m trying not to moan, but I’m just being realistic. We are trying to put the pieces together and sometime down the line it will look different because we will have different players with different skill sets."
