Tony Mowbray says that Aji Alese needs to believe that he can be a first team regular, and will only go from strength to strength.
UNKNOWN
"Aji wasn't a player I knew well, someone who had been around the West Ham United U23 side and the first team a bit."
TRAINING
"Around the training ground he's a nice, big guy, he's not one of the louder characters. He likes to keep himself to himself really. When I was watching the training the first week I was here, he's very mobile, balls over his head were never a problem for him to turn and recover - straight away I could see he was going to help us with that aspect of his game."
COMPOSED
"What he's brought to us is composure on the ball, and you could see at Reading he helped take their strikers out the game really, with the way we were able to spread them with that quick passing across the back. He fitted into that perfectly."
CONFIDENCE
"Out of possession he's strong and mobile and he has shown that. He still has to gain that confidence within himself, that he should be playing in the first team at Sunderland AFC. He isn't a gregarious lad, and I'll be pushing him to find that consistency and the belief that he should be in the team every single week. Like all players, there's areas where he needs to improve, as a tall centre-half we want to improve his heading for example, but he gives the team balance and he's done exceptionally well for us."
