‘I want to help Sunderland go up, and maybe stay here’
Patrick Roberts has a simple message: “Sunderland want to get back to the top – and so do I.”
Describing his new home as a “big, ambitious club,” Roberts will rely on his experience to try and help lift the Black Cats out of their recent winless run.
Speaking in yet another hotel room – this time on Wearside – he seems welladjusted to a “different” type of life, even for a footballer.
Sunderland is Roberts’ ninth club before his 25th birthday and, having joined on a reported sixmonth deal in January, he jokes that he “does not want to add many more clubs to that CV”.
“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 having that backing from them and that support from them,” he said.
"It's brought me to where I am today.”
Signed while Lee Johnson was still in charge, Roberts’ immediate task was to build up match fitness through four cameo appearances from the bench in Sunderland’s last five games.
Now under the management of Alex Neil, he is clear in what he wants from a coach.
“Trust from the manager is at the top for me,” he explained.
"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.”
Black Cats fans, while ruing their team’s results, have had glimpses of what Roberts can bring to Sunderland: jinking runs and an eye for a pass, he is not unlike current Sunderland fan favourite Aiden McGeady.
And the similarities to McGeady do not stop
at their shared playing style. Both were multiple title winners with Celtic, where Roberts played under Brendan Rodgers, now of Leicester City.
Roberts said: “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.
"And yeah, he [Rodgers] came in and he saw me in training and said ‘oh yeah, you're not bad’ and just from that that moment, you get that trust and that confidence.
“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.”
Roberts arrived at Sunderland
in the middle of a busy League One campaign, but having minimal preparation is something that loan moves prepared him well for.
“I think experience comes with doing it a few times,” he said.
"You're often joining with the first aim to win the manager over because different clubs are harder to get into, like the first team at Manchester City is more difficult to play in than at 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”.
But he is bullish in his assertion that he coped well with moving from place to place regularly.
“I stand by it, that's why I made that move [to City] when I was younger,” he said.
"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, play 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.”
Joining Sunderland – currently in sixth place ahead of a trip to promotion rivals Wigan Athletic on Saturday – Roberts is keen to see his new club get back to winning ways.
“If you ask anyone they want to be in a team that's winning. It's hard to keep that consistency up,” he added.
“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.”
Now with his feet under the table at Sunderland, Roberts is keen to keep moving forward.
He said: “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.”
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