Was on a Facebook post mate, quite a long statement.
WATSON HAPPY TO STAY
Kristjaan Speakman has rubbished claims that Tommy Watson “wanted to leave” Sunderland on deadline day. Let’s face it the lad is a massive Sunderland fan and his family watch him every week, why would he want to go to Brighton?
DIDN’T WANT TO LEAVE
“I think it would be really unfair to suggest that the player wanted to leave. Tommy is like a number of young players that we’ve got, where they’re on the up, they’re highly-rated and ambitious, which we want them to be, and then they get presented with an opportunity. Ultimately, Tommy didn’t have a decision to make because there wasn’t an agreement between the clubs. If the clubs had agreed, he would have had a decision to make, and you could understand why he would choose to stay, but you could also understand why he might decide to leave. That would be based on his views. But we never got to that point, so it was never really an issue. I think Tommy is such a level-headed kid that it’s absolutely not a problem. He’s Sunderland through and through, but he’s also ambitious and wants to get promoted and play in the Premier League with Sunderland. I’ve spoken to him this morning and he’s the usual Tommy Watson – he wants to get back fit and wants to get back to the Stadium of Light, scoring goals.”
CONTRACT
“I don’t think it was a risk. Tommy’s got a year left on his contract. At the minute, he’s fully committed to what we’re doing, and there’ll obviously be ongoing conversations about whether he can extend that or whether there’s going to be a moment where a club is able to agree a fee with us. We’re just focused on the short term at the minute, trying to make sure that the team is as cohesive as possible. We have to try to navigate these remaining 16 games in the best possible way, and Tommy can have a massive impact on that for us.”
NO REPLACEMENT
“Over the last season, Tommy’s worked himself to be one of two wide-left options in our squad. There’s him and Romaine (Mundle), you can’t let one of those players leave without finding a suitable replacement. That’s part of our thinking. There’s a trading element within the business of football, which is, ‘If you’re going to trade this player, what other opportunities does that present for you as a club?’ We look at all those things within it, and that’s ultimately part of the decision-making process as to whether you an accept an offer or not, and whether at a specific moment, you think that offer is the right value to enable you to do something else, or whether you want to hold to a future window. We’re really comfortable from a club perspective, and I think the player is really comfortable too because he recognises how good an opportunity Sunderland is at the minute, and he’s fully committed.”
