Name: Tony Mowbray on Sunderland's Champions League scouting - and possible January sales
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Tony Mowbray on Sunderland's Champions League scouting - and possible January sales

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Tony MowbraySunderland AFCFootballSportShareSUNDERLAND’S scouting team have been raising their sights this season – with Tony Mowbray admitting the club are putting plans in place so they can move quickly if any of their young stars are prised away by a Premier League suitor in January.In Jack Clarke, Dan Neil, Anthony Patterson and Pierre Ekwah, the Black Cats boast four of the brightest young prospects in the whole of the Championship, and all four have been linked with possible moves away from Wearside in the last few months.Understandably, Mowbray does not want to lose anyone at the turn of the year, but with Clarke having been the subject of a number of unsuccessful bids from Burnley in the summer and Neil known to be attracting strengthening interest from at least two top-flight clubs, there is a good chance Sunderland’s owners will be finding themselves fielding formal offers at the start of next year.If that happens, and they opt to sell at least one of their prime assets, Mowbray is confident a proportion of the money will be reinvested in the squad, hence the new focus on scouting at a higher level than might previously have been the case.“Recruitment has to be key,” said the Black Cats boss. “I was talking to Stuart Harvey (head of player recruitment) in my office the other day. I think he’s taking three days off, then he’s away all around the world. He was telling me the countries he’s booked into – he’s going to South America, then back to various parts of Europe, he’s going everywhere.“Why do you do that? Because if we have a scenario where we sell someone for £20m, then we have to be able to buy a £5m footballer somewhere, not a £600,000 player from Ligue 2 in France. We have to be able to improve, and keep the team really strong.READ MORE:“So, Stuart has to go and see some top teams now. Why would Stuart go and watch a Champions League game when we’re not at that level? Well, just in case we were to sell somebody for mega-bucks, that might be the market we’re looking at.“Can we find a player who’s young and we can develop? Okay, we might have to pay a certain price for him, but we might have got that amount times four for the player we’ve just sold. They have to look at all the markets, and that’s what we’re doing.”That does not mean that Mowbray is resigned to losing one of his leading lights at the turn of the year, but it does mean that he is not spending too much time worrying about how thing might play out in January.The head coach is comfortable with his hands-off role when it comes to recruitment and player trading, and trusts the judgement of those who are tasked with identifying potential signings, and whose record in the last couple of years has been extremely impressive.“I don’t lose sleep at night about who’s going to buy our players or come in with bids for our players,” said Mowbray. “That’s not my job to worry about that. It will be the owner’s and the club’s decision about whether they think the money that someone is offering is worth doing a deal for.“We might know we’ve got a player who has got more potential than the player that’s already here, and if we can get him for a quarter of the price that we’re selling for, and within a year he’s actually better than him, then that’s how it has to work.“The club should keep growing and developing like that, bringing in more exciting players for the supporters. Hopefully, that’s how you grow your club. If we sell someone for big money, I’m sure they will reinvest some of that money into a new player. Then, we’ll see if he’s fit and ready to go into the team.”Tony MowbraySunderland AFCFootballSportShareWe want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.Please report any comments that break our rules.Read the rules herePlease sign in or register to comment.Send your news &amp; photosLoading...Loading...Automatically injected HTML goes herePiano meter debuggerData returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event.As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles.Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services.These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience – the local community.It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times.

Tony MowbraySunderland AFCFootballSportShareSUNDERLAND’S scouting team have been raising their sights this season – with Tony Mowbray admitting the club are putting plans in place so they can move quickly if any of their young stars are prised away by a Premier League suitor in January.In Jack Clarke, Dan Neil, Anthony Patterson and Pierre Ekwah, the Black Cats boast four of the brightest young prospects in the whole of the Championship, and all four have been linked with possible moves away from Wearside in the last few months.Understandably, Mowbray does not want to lose anyone at the...

Tony Mowbray on Sunderland's Champions League scouting - and possible January sales

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