SUNDERLAND'S exciting academy talents turned down the opportunity to leave and join Premier League clubs in the summer because of the "power" of the Black Cats' potential and faith in young players, says Kristjaan Speakman.

While Sunderland strengthened their squad with 11 new signings in the summer, the Black Cats prioritised the retention of key first team players and the club's most promising youngsters.

There was Premier League interest in Chris Rigg and goalkeeper Matthew Young, both 16, with Rigg particularly in-demand after his record-breaking breakthrough season. Newcastle and Manchester United wanted the midfielder, while Young - who like Rigg was part of the Sunderland squad for the pre-season trip to the United States - had interest from Wolves.

But rather than have their heads turned, Rigg and Young both put pen-to-paper on two-year scholarship deals at the Stadium of Light.

Tommy Watson, who made his debut just 10 days after turning 17, signed his first professional deal last week, while highly-rated defender Zak Johnson last week agreed a new long-term extension. They're just some of the highly-rated youngsters in the academy who sporting director Speakman describes as the "future of Sunderland". And he says the fact those young players opted to stay on Wearside this summer is evidence of the direction in which the club is heading.

He said: "You can always lose focus around the depth and those younger players, Matty Young, Chris Rigg, Zak Johnson, Tommy Watson - that's the future of Sunderland and we have to protect that future. The football club and the ownership have invested heavily to ensure our academy programme is optimised at the highest possible level.

"We've had loads of infrastructure changes and improvements and I think the younger players have seen that as well. But what they've also seen is a football club that will give them an opportunity and we feel it's the right place to be.

"All those young players would have the opportunity to go into a number of other football clubs but they decided to stay here, and I think that just shows how powerful the project is."

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The same can be said for the senior players who signed new deals at the club over the summer. Dennis Cirkin, Trai Hume, Dan Ballard and Luke O'Nien all extended their stay at the Stadium of Light.

Speakman said: "Our retention strategy has been really high in terms of where we've focused and we've managed to retain some highly talented players, who are not just performing on the pitch now but we think they can perform at a higher level in the future.

"It's a mark of confidence in everyone working at the football club that they feel they want to re-sign. It shows where the football club is at that we can retain that level of talent and it shows where their mentality is at that they believe in what's going on here. They believe in what happens behind the scenes, the football club and ultimately want to be part of a successful team.

"So I'm really pleased we got those guys over the line and hopeful that starts to ensure our succession planning strategy and how we're integrating players into the group becomes a lot more seamless.

"We want continuity and keeping those players around the building is really important."