Sunderland: Kelly could be Pritchard heir

Sunderland sporting director Kristjaan Speakman has constructed an thrilling squad stuffed with younger gamers on the Stadium of Gentle and they’re having fun with a robust season within the Championship.

Tony Mowbray’s facet are ninth within the table because it stands and sit 5 factors off the play-off positions with 12 matches left to safe a spot within the prime six.

While gifted children like Aji Alese, Amad Diallo, and Anthony Patterson have caught the attention all through the marketing campaign, just a few of the extra skilled gamers within the squad have been among the many staff’s greatest performers.

Alex Pritchard, for instance, is at present the membership’s second-highest-rated participant on Sofascore behind Ross Stewart with a median score of seven.01, though the gem can be third if Ellis Simms had stayed as a substitute of returning to Premier League facet Everton.

The attacking midfielder has produced two objectives and 4 assists in 29 appearances for the Black Cats within the league this season however his contract is because of expire on the finish of 2023/24.

Pritchard can be 31 by the point his deal runs out and Mowbray could already be enthusiastic about how he can exchange the previous Norwich and Huddersfield man.

One route the pinnacle coach might go down is utilising the Academy of Gentle to unearth an inheritor to the midfielder’s throne and U21 star Caden Kelly might be the inheritor obvious.

Who’s Caden Kelly?

The 19-year-old quantity ten is a former Manchester Metropolis youth product who has been thriving in Sunderland’s U21 and U18 sides in latest seasons.

He joined the membership throughout the 2020/21 marketing campaign and performed 22 instances for the U18s that time period – scoring 4 objectives and offering 4 assists from midfield.

Is Caden Kelly a future star?

Kelly then scored three objectives and assisted two in 12 U18 video games the next season to earn himself a call-up to the U21s for the primary time, the place he plundered 5 objective contributions in 19 appearances.

{The teenager} has stepped his kind up within the present marketing campaign and is on six objectives and two assists in 13 Premier League 2 outings for the U21 facet, which reveals that the teen is growing and including extra finish product to his performances.

Journalist Josh Bunting as soon as hailed the maestro as a “really technical” gem and claimed that the midfielder “can do huge issues” within the recreation shifting ahead.

His development by means of the ranks on the Academy of Gentle and his present, spectacular, kind for the U21s this season means that the wizard is bettering and rising as he features extra expertise.

Due to this fact, the younger expertise might be ready to take over from Pritchard on the finish of subsequent season if the teenager can proceed to develop and enhance within the subsequent 18 months or so.

A mortgage transfer for the 2023/24 marketing campaign might enable the midfielder to achieve helpful first-team expertise and take his growth to the subsequent degree, which is actually one thing price exploring over the summer time with a view to him making Mowbray’s squad the next 12 months.