Sunderland's academy squads will undergo warm weather camp

Academy manager Robin Nicholls will oversee the club's young squads travel to northern Italy in the Lake Garda region for a period of warm weather training and fixtures ahead of the new season as Sunderland’s under-21s prepare to return to the Premier League’s International Cup following their success in Premier League 2 last season.

Graeme Murty guided the under-21s to a seventh-place finish in Premier League 2 before going on to reach the play-off final where they were narrowly beaten by league winners Tottenham Hotspur at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in May. It’s a season which means the club’s academy will compete on the international stage for the first time since the 2017-18 season when losing in the quarter-final stage, one year on from reaching the final against FC Porto.

Like Sunderland’s first team squad, who have arrived in Spain ahead of their fixtures with Nottingham Forest and Segunda Divisón club CD Eldense this week, the academy squads will undergo an extensive training schedule before fixtures with Hellas Verona, Inter Milan, Bologna and Atalanta.

Sunderland’s under-21s will be first in action as they face Verona under-20s on Wednesday, July 17 before facing Serie A side Bologna on Saturday, July 20. Meanwhile, Sunderland’s under-18s squad will face Inter Milan’s under-19s on Friday, July 19 before rounding off the trip against Atalanta under-19s on Monday, July 22.

"It’s great to confirm our U18 and U21 teams travelling to Italy this pre-season,” academy manager Nicholls explained.

“Having visited the facilities recently, we are excited about the work we will be able to complete with the lads whilst away. It will provide some crucial time for the staff and players to solidify the great work from last season and build upon it in preparation for next.

“The fixtures will provide another great development opportunity against opposition that differs from the normal academy fixtures.

“They’re really important tours,” he added.

“They provide the group with a different challenge in terms of the format, the location, the language and the style of play they’re going to face. It’s all part of a bigger tool we try to use to develop the players, just giving them a different challenge and a different stimulus. Tours like this really provide that in a short space of time.

"They’ll have six or seven really intense days, warm weather training in a different environment and hopefully they’ll be able to solidify a lot of development in a short space of time.”

Sunderland's under-21s reached the Premier League 2 play-off final last season (Image: Ian Horrocks)

Sunderland recently welcomed a fresh intake of youth scholars while also handing out a number of professional contracts to a several of the academy squad. But while there will be an added pressure to those players who have agreed permanent deals with the club for the first time, Nicholls has reiterated the development plan is about improving as individuals as well as players, with the pathway to the first team remaining on offer after the likes of Tom Watson was included in the first team squad for the trip to Spain.

“We have a lot of aims as an academy in terms of the individuals,” said Nicholls.

“We have a collective aim to impact the young people. That not only looks like minutes on the pitch and percentages [in the first team], it goes deeper than that. It’s trying to impact the individual journeys; can we give them enriching experiences to help them develop as people and players? How are we impacting the landscape of football? What kind of loans are we able to secure for the boys? How can we set them to move forward?

“We have some broad goals in the PL2 and the percentages, but we also have some wider ones as an academy as well.

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“The next couple of weeks are going to be tough,” he added on those players to have agreed their first pro deals this summer.

“This is their first time as professionals now, so the expectations are raised a bit. We always say the hard work starts now. The first contract is exceptional to get, but it’s a very long and hard road ahead to turn it into a career.

“The boys are fully aware what is expected of them and it’ll be a tough few years, but hopefully they can make that step up into the first team.

“The pathway is really big. In terms of young players, it’s really important for them to come to a club where they can have a future and a lot of our discussions have centred around that pathway.

“Over the last two seasons our average in terms of having minutes in the first team is about 22 per cent, which is a really strong number. Last season we had 15 academy graduates be part of the first team – that’s named on the bench or taking to the field or starting the game, so that pathway is a key piece for the boys coming up here and seeing their future here.

“Last season we also had 11 players selected for their youth international teams ranging from England, Ukraine, Northern Ireland and Belgium - those are the barometers of success we like to focus on, but the success of the 21s in PL2 was an addition to that and is hopefully something we can continue with moving forward."