John Wilson says…
Every single member of our Championship playoff squad deserved the right to a chance at Premier League level.
Unfortunately, football isn’t always as patient or linear as that — Anthony Patterson, for example, was immediately deemed not good enough.
Dan Ballard took to it like a duck to water and Dan Neil was a strange one in that he was in match day squads but was never given a good crack of the whip. But there were others, including Mundle, Eliezer Mayenda and Dennis Cirkin, that look as though they
could and can blossom in time.
The pressure of the Premier League means that sometimes time is in short supply, but given that we have to challenge in four competitions, as long as Mundle is happy to compete for scraps and for a starting birth, I’m sure he can still grow and develop with the game time he might get and with the talent he’s surrounded by on a daily basis.
How much would a replacement cost and what sort of player would want to accept a place on the rung of the ladder where he currently is? A younger, hungry player perhaps? Well, Mundle is still a young player with points to prove.
A no-brainer to keep him, for me. He’ll have his chances and he still has huge potential.
Jon Guy says…
There’s always been the possibility of Mundle changing the course of a game and there’s a real player in there, but he’s still growing into the player he’ll undoubtedly become.
As a club, we’ve built our recent success on a group of young talented players that when they arrived, weren’t the finished article.
The vast majority have flourished with a few not really delivering during their time here; Mundle has shown he has the potential and with so much football to be played this season he will get chances to show what he can do.
I think he deserves to stay based on his likely game time this term and if he feels that’s enough, I’d be happy to see him stay. He needs to remember that if he wants to be one of the first names on the team sheet at the current stage of his development, it won’t be in the Premier League.
Maybe a season on loan would suit the club and the player?
Malc Dugdale says…
This is an “it depends” point for me — it depends on who we sign and if he’s pushed even further down the pecking order by wide men that could come in for large sums and will expect game time.
It depends on whether we don’t spend but give him a chance, and whether he stays fit enough to show us what he can do. There’s a chance that happens and we find out he doesn’t have enough, but right now, we don’t really know.
It also depends on if someone comes in and offers us a decent price and looks to give Mundle regular first team football. That may well be the right next move for the lad — or maybe a decent loan to get regular game time back in the second tier to improve his fitness and durability and then see where we stand.
It all really just depends.
Do I see him starting for us in the Premier League in August? No. Could we use him in the squad for the game frequency — including the Europa League — if he stays fit? Maybe.
There are a host of factors that could impact his short-term future and if none of those things happen and he gets a go and stays fit, it would be interesting to see how he performs between now and Christmas. If he doesn’t exit this summer and he doesn’t really click between now and January, that would be the absolute latest point I could see us holding onto him.
Matthew Donne says…
I think unfortunately for Mundle, he finds himself coming back from recurring injuries and is behind younger players in the shape of Chemsdine Talbi and Nilson Angulo.
We’ve definitely seen glimpses of his quality and why Spurs were happy for us to take Jack Clarke from them with him in the wings but it hasn’t quite worked out as all parties would have liked so far on Wearside.
The “Will he or won’t he?” saga surrounding a potential Simon Adingra exit will likely seal his fate one way or another. If Adingra leaves (which I imagine is the preferred choice due to reported fees), he’ll be a squad player for the Europa League for sure, and he may find his form in those games.
If Adingra is reintegrated, it’ll very probably end Mundle’s stay on Wearside as we’ll be looking to trim the fat of the squad ahead of the new financial regulations.
He’s probably the epitome of a “What if?” signing if I’ve ever seen one over the last few years, and it’s a shame we didn’t get his best over a prolonged spell.
Owen Sara says…
I was very surprised to see he made fourteen Premier League appearances last season.
Granted, they were all cameos off the bench and if I remember rightly, during his first full season with us, he started very brightly but never reached the same heights and had a recurring hamstring problem that blighted his season.
There’s an argument that with so many games next season, he’s worth keeping as a squad player, especially to fill the home grown quota for the Europa League, but for me he can never get a consistent run of games and is very one-dimensional in how he plays.
For me, it’ll depend on the situation with Simon Adingra.
If we were to let him go, there would be more space for Mundle but I don’t see a world where both stay, and I’d rather lose Mundle than Adingra. It’ll be best for both parties for him to move on and hopefully we can make a bit of a profit on him, as English players seem to come at a premium in today’s market.
Paul Lee says…
It’s about physicality and mentality; how robust he could be in the Premier League and how consistently he’s available for selection. The latter is Regis Le Bris’ buzzword.
The lad has great heritage having come through the Spurs Academy. He’s only twenty three. He has skill and is exciting and free-running at his best.
How mentally strong is he? I think he’s strong enough. I also think he’s in a great squad environment with Granit Xhaka and Luke O’Nien there to support his development. When he comes onto the field of play, he’s exciting and can make things happen.
He needs to build his physicality. If this lets him down, allow the lad to move on and probably down a league. The coaching and medical staff will make an assessment but I’d keep him on the books until January at least.
Tom Albrighton says…
At risk of sounding too harsh, I think it’s quite clear that the only future Mundle has is away from Sunderland and it’s my opinion that the best time for this is as soon as possible.
That isn’t because I dislike Mundle. I’m sure he’s a wonderful person but the reality is also that he isn’t a Premjer League footballer and as good as Sunderland were last season, we can ill afford to carry passengers.
Because of that, his future absolutely lies away from Sunderland and what typifies that most is his most recent season — he was injured for most of it and when he did play, he was absolutely miles off it with the fact that in fourteen appearances, he registered more yellow cards (1) than he did goals and assists combined (0).
Whilst in the Championship we could and did ride out his periods of absence for the reward his directness and raw pace would bring, we can’t do the same in the Premier League, in which those standout features of his game are the very minimum requirements.
For those reasons, it’s best that Mundle moves on and as soon as possible. Of course this benefits the club on the basis of whatever money we would make but also Mundle himself, who — quite bluntly — needs a full reset in order to get his career moving in a positive direction again.
