AFTER the deadline day exits of Lynden Gooch and Danny Batth, Tony Mowbray says there's an opportunity for Sunderland's young players to step up and show they can be "captain material".
Mowbray hailed "amazing" Gooch and Batth for their contribution to the Black Cats and wished the pair well for the future after they completed their deadline day moves to Stoke City and Norwich City respectively.
As much as he valued the pair, Mowbray made clear he wouldn't stand in the way of players who could potentially get more game-time and contractual security elsewhere, but the departures have "created a void" in the squad, he says, and the head coach is now urging some of his youngsters to show their leadership skills.
Ross Stewart, who left for Southampton on deadline day, was another key senior player in the Sunderland dressing room, with club captain Corry Evans not expected to be back from his knee injury until the end of the year.
Mowbray said: "I do believe that an experienced head helps young players make better decisions. While you can coach them, football really happens in the dressing room and training ground.
"There's the old saying, you're only as good as the senior pros in your dressing room, because they drive standards: don't be late for the meeting, get those boots on, get out there and train, otherwise young footballers will be on their phone constantly scrolling.
"I'm not spending all my days telling the lads to be out for training, it's the senior pros who drive standards.
"If you're not winning and the standards are really low, people start saying there's no discipline in that club. You have to drive it from inside, so you do need senior pros.
"This is an opportunity for me to say people like Lynden Gooch and Danny Batth have been amazing for this football club. And I should put it on record, in my one year, amazing footballers and amazing men who know what football is all about and I wish them well in their future careers.
"Because of the void that's been created, some of these young lads have to step up now. Who is driving it? We're fortunate to still have Luke O'Nien at the club, who is an amazing human being, I've told you in the past.
"But some of the young lads now have an opportunity to be captain material. Jack Clarke is always moaning at me, 'gaffer am I vice captain?'. Who is going to fill the voids of the senior players who have left the football club and there's an opportunity there."
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After a busy summer of ins and outs, Mowbray is now enjoying the opportunity to work with his players on the training pitches during the international break, with the squad on a high after the emphatic Southampton victory last time out.
He feels fortunate, he says, to have the squad he has at his disposal.
"That's why I said I don't moan, I don't go into Kristjaan's office and bang my feet, I know the quality of the footballers," he says.
"Stuart Harvey (head of recruitment) needs to be mentioned as well, he's head of recruitment and he finds these players. My job is to just give them an opportunity and to try and mould them really.
"Quality is quality. As I keep saying to them, I'm not a master coach. I'm not Pep Guardiola who has all these amazing ways of playing and tinkers with this and that, I'm a football manager who gets in the mind of footballers and tries to give them inspiration to maximise their career.
"I have some wonderful coaches working with me and together we find a formula."
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