In this week's North East notes, a former Sunderland defender declares his interest in the head coach vacancy - but it comes with a warning.

There's potentially an exciting opportunity ahead for Boro and Sunderland's Under-21s as the Premier League 2 campaign comes to a close.

We discuss Isaiah Jones after his new deal, and touch on Newcastle transfer regret from a couple of years ago.

EUROPEAN OPPORTUNITY...

Middlesbrough's Under-21s secured a place in the Premier League 2 end of season play-offs thanks to their win at Sunderland last Monday.

The top 16 in the 26-side PL2 table go on to face off in the play-offs, which is made up of one-off eliminator games. Boro, who are currently seventh and have one game to play, will secure a home draw in the last 16 if they finish in the top eight.

Despite the disappointment of the Boro defeat, Sunderland - 10th - remain well placed to make the play-offs. The first of their two remaining games is against Liverpool at Eppleton on Monday night.

It's not just a place in the play-offs at stake for Boro and Sunderland in the final week of the season, though. The top 12 PL2 teams will be invited to compete in next season's Premier League International Cup - a chance to go up against the best academy sides from across Europe.

While the focus for Under-21 bosses is on producing players for the first team rather than purely on results, Sunderland boss Graeme Murty admitted a "consequence" is beneficial and he's challenged his players to seal a top 12 finish - which looks extremely likely for Boro.

It's been a hugely productive year at Boro's Rockliffe academy, with the Under-21 side faring well and several youngsters included in first team squads.

Under-21 boss Mark Tinkler said: "Obviously you want to win games because if you’re winning games then your confidence grows. But ultimately for us as academy coaches it’s about getting players in the first team. We’ve been fortunate this season to have many young lads make the bench and a couple even get some game time with the first team as well.

"It’s great for the academy. We’ve had players go out on loan, making debuts in the Football League and the National League too. It’s always a positive and something we aim to do throughout any season. For the lads that stay here though, they want to win games and perform well."

O'SHEA ON THE SUNDERLAND JOB

Having made more than 200 appearances for Sunderland as a player, interim Ireland boss John O'Shea admits he'd love to return to the Stadium of Light as boss - but has doubts about the current model at the club.

"I was there for six or seven years, it's an amazing club and we had an amazing time," he said on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast.

"I'd love to be Sunderland manager, but I spoke to Tony Mowbray when he came in at Birmingham about the model, they're really going with young players.

"It's a great idea on paper but the classic example, look at Leverkusen, the first thing Xabi Alonso said was he needed (Granit) Xhaka.

"You need to have a mix. You need young players and assets to sell on, but the cut throat nature of getting promoted and staying there, you need a blend of experience and youth."

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ISAIAH JONES' BORO IMPORTANCE

Martin Carter knew immediately.

The game he was watching was only five minutes old but his eyes were instinctively drawn to the slight yet rapid Tooting and Mitcham winger who was troubling an Uxbridge full-back.

It was Isaiah Jones.

"He was 19, raw, but he had this ability to run at defenders and come away with the ball," Boro's head of academy recruitment said in a previous interview with The Athletic.

"He had speed and bravery. So you can look at the league and think, ‘Yeah, this isn’t great,’ but you’re not looking at the league, you’re looking at the player. You’re looking at potential."

Carter was looking at a future Boro star.

Boro swooped, signed the youngster, and when you consider the club's recruitment success stories of the last decade or so, Jones has to be right up there near the top of the list.

Plucked from non-league, Jones was given his opportunity by Neil Warnock, flourished under Chris Wilder - when he turned heads of Premier League clubs and established himself as one of the most feared wide players in the Championship - and has this season rediscovered form that was understandably impacted - as was his mental health - by tragic family losses last year.

This season, only five outfield Boro players have played more minutes than Jones, who fully deserved the new contract he signed last week. You can judge a player's importance by how much they're missed when they're absent - and that was certainly the case with Jones earlier this year.

In the six league games that followed the winger suffering a hamstring injury against Rotherham, Boro lost four and won only one - as well as getting thumped in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg at Stamford Bridge, where Jones' pace was key to making the system and approach work.

It makes no difference now, of course, but had Jones not suffered that injury against Rotherham, there's every chance Boro would be entering their final three games of the season with a smaller gap to bridge to the play-offs than the current nine points.

EKITIKE ON THE MOVE

Hugo Ekitike must surely look back and question his decision to snub Newcastle and join PSG back in 2022.

It might have made sense for the forward at the time but the move hasn't worked out for Ekitike, who has made just 12 starts in the  French capital and scored just three goals.

And he looks almost certain to move on in the summer.

The 21-year-old is currently on loan at Frankfurth, who look set to make that deal permanent in the summer for £17m.

He scored his first competitive goal in more 15 months against Augsburg on Friday night.

Frankfurt will hope they can get the best out of a talented attacker, who was turning heads of clubs across Europe just a couple of years ago.