Kristjaan Speakman has been doing the media rounds in recent days, and gave a brief synopsis of: the club's relationship with Jordan Willis, Ross Stewart's injury latest and a well-deserved draw down at Fulham last week.
STEWART
"Yeah, I spoke to Ross shortly after his injury and he’s really down. I think for a player coming through who has done so well here, to suffer two big injuries in a short space of time is going to knock you. I’d like to think we’ve got a really good care package around him, so we can help him physically and psychologically. We have to get him back up and running as quickly as possible, because he is a really important player for us. You can’t help but feel for the lad, he does everything right, and he’s everything we want from a Sunderland player."
MOWBRAY HAPPY DESPITE MANY INJURIES
"Yeah, Tony Mowbray is really well aligned with what we are doing, hence why he got the job. He sees it very similar to how we see it. Of course we all want three, or four good centre forwards, but we also understand where we’re at, and it’s been really enjoyable talking to him about giving young players an opportunity, and we agreed that we’re not going to bring a striker in for the sake of it."
WILLIS
"When it comes to the Jordan Willis situation, we certainly don’t want to discard and be disrespectful towards our injured players. We have allowed him to remain here and recover, and he has been training with the first team. We wanted to help give him time to get his career back on track. That shows the culture we have here, we want to have that empathy that top class organisations have. Now he can go on and continue his career."
FULHAM
"I think the Fulham game just shows the quality we have progressed to, I think we are ahead of where we anticipated we’d be at this point. That is a massive positive, and that certainly brings scrutiny of where we can get done, we are not putting a ceiling on what this team can achieve. My wife is always updating about the positives and negatives, and she has been sending me more positive things recently. I’m really proud of the team, and I’m proud of everyone who’s involved with the progression of this football club. To be able to go toe to toe in this sort of fixture is great. We’re laser focused on progressing and challenging ourselves. Abdoullah’s got a lot to answer before, because I twisted my ankle jumping up and down. It was such a great day, and getting Chris Rigg on the pitch was great. We brought six thousand fans down, and that helps sell the club to players."
