Kristjaan Speakman has spoken about how Sunderland have managed to attract exciting young talents with "non-cash benefits" despite better financial offers elsewhere, and the club's new reputation for being the best place for young players to develop.
COMPETING FINANCIALLY
“I mean, from a contractual piece, I'm not convinced we're necessarily the best offer. I don't think we have been for a number of players that we've recruited because we're really, really confident in our structure."
OTHER BENEFITS
"One of the things we're often saying to the players is that there are cash benefits and there are non-cash benefits. We think we're one of the strongest, one of the strongest propositions on those non-cash benefits. The amount of money that's been invested into development and progression at the Academy of Light and for a performance piece at the stadium, I don't think is rivalled very easily and there's the piece that is really, really difficult to compete with, which is your culture and your values.”
CALLUM DOYLE THE EARLIEST EXAMPLE
“We believe in young players. We believe in young people. We believe in players that want to get better. One of the reasons we took Callum Doyle when we very first came here is we needed some proof points to be able to say, you can come here. We're going to believe in you. You'll get your opportunity if you do all the relevant things correctly and you can leave in a better position."
USED DOYLE AS PROOF FOR OTHERS
“I think if you look at Callum, who became one of our earliest young players, we used an external player to do that with, we've got a number of proof points. So whether that's Rigg, whether that's Matty Young, whether that's Jobe, whether that's any of the other players that have come into this football club."
BEST POSITION TO GROW
“I think we've demonstrated we've been able to improve them and add value and I think young players are getting more astute now, I think, than ever before to try to look at where opportunities are and where can I go and grow and develop? Like I said, we're getting more and more people coming to us now to say, look, there's this player, I think he'd be perfect for you, which I think, again, puts Sunderland in such a fantastic position.”
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