Patrick Roberts!

He got injured the second season and wasn't the same, you could see it then and I think it's obvious by how his career has panned out.

 

He could’ve joined permanently if he really wanted to.

Instead he decided to sign an extension at City and chase the money. It’s pretty obvious looking at his career where his priorities lie.

 

He got a new contract at City that will have set him up for life. That’s the harsh reality of it.

Look at Forster, £90k gross per week circa £50k net of tax! He was never saying goodbye to that to move to us.

Patrick was probably on less than half of that at City but still way more than up here. Short career and he believed he could make it down there.

He was tremendous for us until the Celtic winger injury curse hit him. I’d have him over Mikey every day of the week though. Harsh maybe?

He still missed a sitter or two against Sevco!!!

 

His injury time goal looks like it’s sent Sunderland to the playoff final.

 

ta Keano came here to make sure it was him that scored

 

Anyone who still wants to sign him needs their head checked.

 

Good goal but looks half the player he was. Sad to see.

 

Pep * his career

 

Correction, Paddy * his own career by wanting to go back. A blind man could see it wasn't going to work for him at Citeh

 

Pep never * his career at all

 

Tbf he was under contract.

Celtic had agreed a £8m deal in 2017 and pep changed his mind at the last minute. He then shipped him out and about

 

Bit of both the season he came back on loan we offered 8m it got accepted by board the. Pep put curtains on it didn’t want him to play against them in cl if we got drawn so was a loan instead


Then the season he went to Spain we tried then and he decided he wanted to go abroad


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Loans don’t stop players from playing against their parent clubs in Europe.

Whoch is how Roberts ended up playing and scoring against City…

 

Yeh season before


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You will also notice the second loan deal took forever because city were waiting to see who they got in group stage


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This doesn’t make any sense, it didn’t matter. Loan contracts are counted as the same as permanent contracts in European competition.

It was completely irrelevant wether he was loaned or sold to us.

 

https://theathletic.com/3314795/2022/05/19/patrick-roberts-sunderland/

Patrick Roberts: ‘I’m lucky to play football. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t




When footballers speak of hopes and ambitions, they understandably focus on cups and caps, trophies and triumphs — glorious days and nights on the pitch. This is why you play the game.

When Patrick Roberts speaks, he too wants those moments and achievements. At Celtic, notably, Roberts has already collected Scottish league and cup medals. He knows what success tastes like. But, when Roberts reflects, he also wants something else, something mentioned less frequently when footballers speak.

“To be settled somewhere is a big aim,” he says. “I’m 25.”

Roberts says this at Sunderland’s training ground. It has been his base since January. Last Monday night at Hillsborough, Roberts scored the goal that took Sunderland past Sheffield Wednesday and into Saturday’s League One play-off final against Wycombe Wanderers at Wembley. For now, Roberts is a Sunderland man.

But the club is Roberts’ ninth in professional football, so he understands what it is like to be a wanderer. And as he says: “I’m 25.”

There is a list: Roberts has been at Fulham, Manchester City, Celtic, Girona, Norwich City, Middlesbrough, Derby County, Troyes and now here on Wearside. England, Scotland, Spain, back to England, then France, then back again to England.




So talented that City paid £12 million for him at 18, Roberts was sent out on six loans. Some worked, some didn’t, and as the seasons passed, he became their wandering star.

Today, contractually, City is over. From January, Roberts took charge of his decisions. He will determine his future.

Is he searching for something?

“Yeah,” he says. “I’ve been on loan numerous times now and it’s one of those things — you get to a club and you’ve been and gone within six months or a year. It’s never much beyond that, you’re always packing your stuff up, you’re always saying your goodbyes. At some point you get so used to it, it’s normal.

“This summer, I don’t know what’s going to happen but right now I’m at the club and I’m enjoying it. I hope it may continue. I want to be part of something.”

Sunderland is short-term, almost inevitably given the club’s situation on the brink of promotion or a fifth season in the third tier. Saturday could be Roberts’ last game for the club or it could be the starting point of a fresh negotiation to stay longer, put down some roots, to be, as he says, “part of something”.



I’m from London, my family are from Liverpool,” Roberts tells The Athletic ahead of Sunderland’s League One play-off final against Wycombe. “I’ve played in Manchester, in Glasgow, in France, in Spain, all over, but I’ve never been really settled. I’ve always wanted that,”

Quickly, he adds: “I have other ambitions as well.

“At the moment it’s about getting settled somewhere, somewhere you’re appreciated. To get the opportunity here, I’ve grabbed it with both hands and I’m enjoying it.”

He could yet settle on the Wear. Much depends on Saturday but what can be said as a play-off cliffhanger approaches is that Roberts has become part of Sunderland’s evolving team. He has been at the club only a fortnight longer than new manager Alex Neil, but Roberts, Neil and the Sunderland squad have grown together since Lee Johnson’s dismissal on the last day of January.

Roberts had made his Sunderland debut the day before — he was a 66th-minute substitute at Bolton. Unfortunately for him and Johnson, the score was 4-0 to Bolton at the time and it would get worse. A 6-0 hammering finished Johnson. It derailed Sunderland’s season.





Roberts had only got started. What was he thinking afterwards?

“I was only through the door,” he says. “I knew I wouldn’t be starting but to be involved was nice. Then to lose 6-0 was… not great. The manager was gone a day later and for the club it was obviously worrying: ‘Is it going to be the same kind of year again?’”

Did it make him reconsider his move?

“I don’t think so. We were third or fourth in the league, which is a good position at the start of February. There was still a lot of football to be played.

“It was one of those games and there was a turnaround at the club. You could maybe think: ‘Ah, I don’t know what’s going on’. But it’s a football club, a business.

“I was just grateful to be here. I went from playing not much football in France to being at a club like Sunderland, fighting for something. It didn’t really faze me. Obviously, it’s not great, but for me it was about getting on with my football, playing, wanting to be somewhere and being a part of something. I don’t get too worried about the other things in football. I just want to play, to be on the pitch.”

The away dressing room in defeat at Bolton was a quiet place, but then, Roberts says, it was not loud in victory at Hillsborough. The emotional intensity of a play-off semi-final consumes players — and fans — and there is the knowledge for the winners that another 90 minutes, at least, await.

“It was kind of more relief than anything,” Roberts says of the post-match scene at Hillsborough. “We played really well in the first leg, probably should have scored more goals. A one-goal lead going to Hillsborough isn’t ideal but we had the same idea, played the same team, which was for the first time in a while, and we just tried to get through it.

“We were just quite drained, really. Two days in between isn’t much time and I was saying during the game that I was feeling fatigued. I think a lot were, also on their team. Physically, it takes a while to recover, especially games of that magnitude for a club like Sunderland at the end of a hard season.

“But you use the energy you get from somewhere. We did. We showed that resilience. Fatigue goes out the window and you just feel like winning.”

Resilience is a new element to the team under Neil. Sunderland had lost 3-0 at Hillsborough in November, four days after a 5-1 battering at Rotherham. Then came the 6-0 at Bolton. It took Neil a few weeks to produce change, but Sunderland go to Wembley on a 15-game unbeaten run.

Roberts, from south west London, can recall only one visit to Wembley — and it was not to play there. It was to watch Fulham, where he had been since under-14 level. He played in the same youth team as Wycombe’s Jack Grimmer and when Roberts made his Fulham debut the month after his 17th birthday, Wycombe’s goalkeeper David Stockdale was behind him. “Stocko!” Roberts says. “He’s a good keeper, a lively character.”

That game in March 2014 was in the Premier League at Manchester City. It ended 5-0 and not to Fulham. But in Fulham’s youth ranks Roberts was impressing City and everyone else.




By September 2015 he was making his debut for City — at Sunderland in a League Cup tie. Roberts replaced Jesus Navas to join Yaya Toure, Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling behind Sergio Aguero.

Unsurprisingly, City won comfortably, but not many 5ft 6in 18 year-olds can earn a starting place in such company and Roberts was soon at Celtic, the first of his six clubs on loan. Ronny Deila was in charge.

“I was young when I first went there, 18, 19,” he says. “I hadn’t played much at City so I was looking to get out to play somewhere. I didn’t really know what to expect at Celtic and I didn’t play for the first couple of months. I played reserve games and stuff, then got an opportunity and ended up scoring about six goals and winning the league.

“Then they changed managers and Brendan Rodgers came in. He was great, helped me a lot, played me a lot, tried to improve my game. I really felt I belonged somewhere and with a manager who takes care of his players, not just me. He wanted to improve us, not just for Celtic, but in general. I felt that.

“Celtic is one of the best times of my career, playing every week for a big club, winning trophies, playing in big games. For a kid, it was an amazing opportunity and I felt at home at Celtic. I’ll always support Celtic, I’ll always have a connection. I was there two and a half years but that will last a lifetime. I hope I can do something here that’s as important.”

Roberts was part of two league titles at Celtic and in 2016 the club were drawn against City in the Champions League. City allowed Roberts to play. He was a substitute in the 3-3 draw at Parkhead but started in the return at City. In the fourth minute, Roberts weaved his way into the City box to open the scoring.

“You couldn’t ask for much more,” he smiles. “I’d good momentum at the time, I’d played a lot of games, but to score against a team you’re owned by, I can’t really explain




City equalised, and overall were pleased with Roberts’ progress in Glasgow. He says he was in regular contact with Brian Marwood and City’s pathways manager, Fergal Harkin, who was appointed sporting director of Standard Liege on Tuesday.

The “good momentum” Roberts felt continued on his next path in northern Spain. At Girona, now 21, Roberts began the 2018-19 season as the only English player in La Liga and made over 20 appearances for the club, though many were from the bench.

But at Celtic, Roberts had started to have hamstring issues and those re-appeared at Girona.

“I really enjoyed Spain,” he says. “It suited where I was at football-wise. I wanted to test myself. I’d been at Celtic, came back to City and it’s: ‘Where do I go?’. It was a club connected to City. I was probably playing my best football at the time and I really enjoyed it. I played about 20 games then I got injured in December.

“I maybe didn’t recover enough and I came on in a game, last 20 minutes, and did my hamstring again. That was me not realising what my body can do. As a footballer I didn’t want to miss a game but it’s better to miss one game than four months. You need to realize these things. It doesn’t help anyone.”

He sounds rueful and says that today: “I know my body. That’s maturing, growing up, understanding my body and being as fit as possible.”

Previously he rushed to be fit. “I’d play on a weekend and think I could play midweek but my hamstring would need three or four days to recover, which is not ideal in any sport. It was part of the problem and I had big injuries on the back of that. I was playing well but it sets you back. Then you’re chasing it again, trying to be fit.”

He adds of Girona: “I enjoyed Spain; then you come back to England and you’re starting all over again.”

At the start of 2019-20, Roberts was at Norwich City, the first of three consecutive seasons that he began at one club and ended at another. Four appearances for Norwich led to a January move to Middlesbrough. He was back at the Riverside for 2020-21, but in the January moved to Derby. Last summer, still a City player, Roberts switched again, this time to France with Troyes, like Girona, a City satellite club.




I didn’t have many options in the summer,” he says, honestly. “City spoke to me about it and it’s the top league in France, why not?

“But it didn’t work out; numerous reasons. Sometimes it happens. COVID was on, it was mayhem. I was disappointed not to play as much as I wanted to.”

He made his Troyes debut in September at Lyon, but that was that. He played a couple of reserve games and a cup tie in December — “Then they have their break and in January things started to move. I got the opportunity to come here.

“I did enjoy it. Paris wasn’t far away and I went there a couple of times to keep my mind off football — when it’s not going well, you’ve got to keep interested in other things. I got through it, mentally.”




Now Roberts sits at Sunderland’s training ground thinking of Wembley. He appeared as a substitute in Neil’s first three games but at Lincoln City in March, Roberts had his first 90 minutes since last May. The week before, he got his first Sunderland goal and now, following his Hillsborough exploits, he has a second. He is fit, his physical well-being has boosted his confidence. He may have found what he is looking for.

“At this moment, the manager here is trusting in us, in me. It’s why we’re doing so well, we’ve got that trust. But now the thing is not to get carried away. There’s one more game. A lot of people need to realise that. It’s not done.

“I just try to enjoy it — I’m lucky to play football. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. I can’t get too disheartened or be bad around the place. It’s just not me. I love playing football.”