USA World Cup striker Jozy Altidore to stay in Premier League after talk from Sunderland boss Gus Poyet Published on the 17 May 2014 13:09 Hartlepool mail JOZY Altidore believes he will still be a Sunderland striker next season - because Gus Poyet has faith in him. The American forward is currently involved in preparations for this summerâs World Cup finals on the back of a woeful debut season for the Black Cats. The £6m signing from AZ Alkmaar last summer was expected to have a big impact on Wearside after scoring 23 goals in 33 games for the Dutch outfit But Altidore scored just one Premier League goal in 31 appearances and was left out of the starting XI for the final two months of the campaign, prompting speculation over this future at the club. The 24-year-old though has revealed Poyet spoke to him at the end of the season, and offered him support for next year. Altidore said:âYou are going to go through tough times and in a career in soccer, a lot of it is mental. âYou have to stay strong at the tough moments because there are going to be a lot of them. âPoyet said, âI know it didnât go well for you, but I believe in you and I want to see you back here,â. âSo it was positive.â Although his season at Sunderland has been one to forget, his poor form has not impacted on his international chances, where his goal-scoring ratio in recent years is impressive. As it is, he will be Sunderlandâs sole representative at the World Cup finals, with Emanuele Giacherrini having been dropped from the Italy squad. Currently part of the 30-man provisional squad, he is expected to be part of USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann final selection for the tournament, in which they will face Germany, Portugal and Ghana in Group G. At the finals itself, Altidore is hoping to put a troubled Premier League campaign behind him. âIt was tricky but it was also good to sit back and see what I could do better,â he said, reflecting on the season. âI feel like I improved, even though I wasnât in the team. âThe bigger picture is we stayed up in the Premier League. âWhen it comes to the World Cup, the season is behind you and all that matters is what you do going forward.â
I'm glad, sell him now we lose money. We need to stop losing money. A loan early next season could see him regain some confidence, or even the U21 squad for a while, so long as he gets scoring at some level just to rediscover the nack.
Maybe it's my age, maybe I'm looking back through rose tinted glasses, but I'm not unhappy about him staying. Let's see how his WC goes. And maybe, as some suggested on previous threads, he could go out on loan early part of next season. But Funks right. We need to stop bleeding money.
Better to stick with him now unless a good offer comes in that would give the lad a fresh start, it is a shame it has gone wrong so far because he seems to be keen to do well, but it takes more than that in the premiership, a lone deal could be the answer.
I don't see the benefit in having a centre forward who doesn't score goals That duffed chance against WBA sums him up Hopefully he will have a good World Cup - then we can punt him
He comes across as a good lad,but he can't score!!Either send him out on loan,or get shot...he's useless as a centre-forward and couldn't score in a brothel!!!
Altidore is a very frustrating player for Sunderland. I suspect we all want to love him because we've seen so many like Gyan, Bent, Fletcher etc who don't seem to give a **** about Sunderland. I can only hope that people keep backing him, especially after the lesson we learned with Wickham. He was called worse than **** and, all of a sudden, we think his fee was peanuts. Altidore is our only representative at the World Cup and one of the main reasons I'll be watching. Nothing would make me happier than seeing him enjoying his time in Brazil after the terrible time he's had this season.
