Sunderland Echo journalists Mark Donnelly, Phil Smith and James Copley discussed all of the latest Sunderland news on the most recent edition of The Roar Podcast and they spent some time talking about Grant Leadbitter during the show.
Leadbitter is a Sunderland academy product. The Black Cats sold him to Ipswich Town in September 2009 and he was re-signed by the North East club just under 10 years later in January 2019.
When Leadbitter was re-signed, then-Black Cats manager Jack Ross declared that it wasn’t “for sentimental reasons,” stating that he felt the midfielder “could have easily continued his career in the Championship.”
The former Sunderland boss’ comments may have been backed up by the fact that Leadbitter featured quite regularly for Sunderland in the 2018/19 campaign after his January move but last season, the £1.44m-rated man spent a lot of time on the sidelines.
With that in mind, it may be understandable why Copley shared that he wrote Leadbitter off – and retrospectively questioned the club’s decision to re-sign him – at the start of the 2020/21 campaign, but the journalist went on to say that he now feels he was wrong to write Leadbitter off following the 34-year-old’s positive performances this season, saying:
“What a guy, I mean, you look at his performances recently – they’ve been absolutely superb. Three or four man-of-the-match awards, I think, so far this season, centrepiece in midfield, controlling the play, driving standards around him.
“You can see how passionate he is about the football club and how much he loves football as well, how much he wants to win, he’s a competitor.
“I owe him an apology because I had him written off at the start of the season. I thought, possibly, his legs had gone and I questioned the signing quite openly, and in the malaise of the dissection of [Charlie] Methven and [Stewart] Donald, you’re looking at that decision thinking, ‘is that another one they’ve got wrong?’ But time’s proven that it’s not.”
Do you have any concerns about Leadbitter at the moment?
I HAVE CONCERNS
I HAVE NO CONCERNS
TIF Thoughts on what Copley had to say about Leadbitter…
Leadbitter has started eight of Sunderland’s 10 League One games this season and he has earned the fourth-highest overall WhoScored rating (7.15) of any Black Cats player in the league this term.
With that in mind, it mightn’t be too surprising that Copley seemingly now regrets that he questioned the club’s decision to re-sign him, as despite now being 34 years old, it may be fair to say he has been one of the Black Cats’ key players thus far in the 2020/21 campaign.
If the midfielder can maintain his positive form as the season progresses, then he will surely help Sunderland in their promotion bid, given how important he has been for the North East club so far this term. If he can help the club to earn the results required to achieve that goal of promotion to the second-tier, then perhaps their decision to re-sign him will look like an inspired one in hindsight, so it may be understandable why the midfielder’s early-season form has alleviated Copley’s concerns.