On this day in 2017, Elliot Embleton made his senior debut for Sunderland in a 0-0 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers, in the Championship.
He joined the club as a seven year old and was a Sunderland season ticket holder from a young age, with all of his family supporting the Lads. Though it seems like an era ago, Embleton was actually named on the bench six times during our ill-fated 2016–17 Premier League season, so he has been around the first team for a long time. He had to wait until our also-ill-fated Championship season to make his debut for the club, which came off the bench against Wolves.
Somehow we managed to take four points off the Championship winners that season and Embo was an injury time sub for Lynden Gooch, as we hung on to a 0-0 draw away from home. Lee Cattermole had been sent off around the hour mar, making the draw a hard-earned point in a season where every result mattered.
Embleton also featured in the resounding victory in the reverse fixture over a likely hung-over Wolves, who were already crowned Champions. Again he came off the bench as we hammered them 3-0 in the last game of the season, in a game that proved that many of the useless first team squad could actually play football.
Embleton wasn’t one of the useless players that season and despite his restricted involvement, simultaneously, he was working his way up the age brackets with England’s youth set up, consistently scoring and playing well. He was a highly rated young footballer (and still is) and he featured in the England U20 squad for the prestigious 2017 Toulon Tournament, scoring in the semi-final against Scotland and converting his penalty during the final of the competition as we beat Ivory Coast 5-3 on penalties. A year later, Embleton was included in the England U19 squad for the 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship and continued his knack of scoring goals in tournaments with a cool finish against Turkey. With the national team, he rubbed shoulders with current senior players like Phil Foden, Mason Mount and Jadon Sancho.
Domestically, in 2018 Embleton found himself on loan at League Two Grimsby Town. He became a fixture for Grimsby and scored four goals in his initial loan, which was extended until the end of the 2018–19 season. It must’ve been torture for Embleton to play in black and white for Grimsby and personally, I would’ve also taken issue with having to advertise the subpar fish products that Young’s sell on my shirt front too. The Grimsby kit that season was an eyesore, but Embleton made it his own and did well at Blundell Park. After his loan, he returned to the more familiar red and white, but found opportunities somewhat hard to come by, only playing just over an hour of League One football for us.
After 11 appearances in all competitions for us in the 2020/21 season, approaching the end of the January transfer window in 2021, Embleton was loaned out to Blackpool who sat 15th in the table. What was the harm in sending a player out on loan to a team who weren’t a threat for promotion, especially considering he wasn’t playing week in week out? Embleton went on to be a vital part of Blackpool’s meteoric rise up the League One table and was instrumental in the Tangerines' promotion push. Like us, Blackpool sealed a play-off place. Unlike us, they got to the final. They did it with the help of Embleton, who scored a brilliant goal in the semi-final to ensure Blackpool had a chance of going up.
They won in the final so Embleton, a bit part player for us, had secured promotion to the Championship before us with essentially his first run of regular League One games. It was surreal to see one of our loan players promoted as we missed out, but the positive was that he came back to us a more confident player.
Embleton is a great passer, is technically very good and can use both feet. His semi-final goal for Blackpool was on one foot, his first goal at the Stadium of Light for us was from the other. Both were great strikes and his goal against Wycombe Wanderers won League One Goal of the Month for August.
His goal, in front of his family and a crowd of 30,000, must've been a brilliant moment for Embleton. He was a key part of our promotion-winning squad, and a powerfully-struck effort in the play-off final is another goal he can add to his Wembley tally.
In the Championship Embo has been in and out of the starting 11, scoring a handful of goals but taking a back seat as Alex Pritchard starts most weeks. With his contract still running until 2025, we have a talented player on our hands who can be a real threat for years to come.
