Patrick Roberts has detailed his ambitions for his time at Sunderland and what he expects from manager Alex Neil. With an extensive CV already at 25, Roberts has shed light on his experience at other teams as well.
CLUBS
“The clubs I’ve been to, and the cultures I've been in, have all been different and many haven’t had the experience that I've had, as well as being signed by a very, very good club and still have that backing from them and that support from them. It's brought me to where I am today,”
MANAGER
“Trust from the manager is at the top for me. You need to be trusted by the manager and also for me to trust his instructions out on the pitch. The manager and I get on well, it's been good so far and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.”
CELTIC
“I played most of my football there at that time, playing my best football, arguably. I was signed for 18 months, which was the best thing I could have done. I knew I was going to be there for a year and a half regardless of the manager. Every day in training I enjoyed coming in, which is obviously coming back to me now and is what I want to emulate going forward.Trust from the manager is at the top for me. You need to be trusted by the manager and for you to trust the manager as well.”
EXPERIENCE
“I think experience comes with doing it a few times. You're often joining with the first aim to win the manager over because the different clubs are harder to get into like the first team at Man City is more difficult to play in than Girona. It was difficult at times but you get your head around it. I think I coped with it well. However, the result of six loans in six and a half years was that Roberts says he “always felt like [he] wasn't really home”.
MAN CITY
“I stand by it. That's why I made that move [to Man City] when I was younger. It wasn't the idea at the start to play for Man City, the idea was to get a good loan and do well somewhere else. Which I did at Celtic. So definitely, I'd say go on loan, playing for a first team in an environment where obviously you have to grow up and mature and play well for other people to see and speak about you.”
WINNING
“If you ask anyone they want to be in a team that's winning. It's hard to keep that consistency up. We’ve got some big games coming up with not many breaks and I’ve just got to be ready and stay as fit as possible and grind out the wins and play good football in the meantime.”
OBJECTIVE
“At the end of the day if you're doing well and the team’s doing well then it’s all good. Helping the team as much as possible now is most important. The team objective is obviously promotion. For myself, personally, it’s to do as best I can. I've had tough times and it takes a while to kind of get back into that rhythm and being at a club like this and staying for a while is obviously a big positive as well.”
