Jewison Bennette may be on the move in January as he seeks first-team experience.
According to sources, Sunderland teenager Jewison Bennette wants to leave the club on loan in January.
Bennette has not played much for the first team this season, having been sidelined by an illness and subsequently a slight ankle injury. The winger is anticipated to be fully healthy very soon, but he will have stiff competition for a starting spot.
However, Kevin Jiminez, a Costa Rican writer who broke the Bennette to Sunderland story in the summer of 2022, has indicated that the player has grown disgruntled at the club and would want to transfer in January.
“Jewison Bennette is not playing for Sunderland due to differences on the part of the board,” the manager remarked. “Sources say the athlete believes he is not being handled with respect. In January, the player would be loaned out.”
Sunderland assistant head coach Mike Dodds recently stated that a loan next month may be the best short-term alternative. Sunderland would prefer that Bennette stay in the UK to learn the language, but Dodds believes that finding the right team is equally vital.
“Any of those young players who aren’t playing as much as we’d like, I think it [a loan] needs to be discussed because we have invested in them and we see them as a long-term project,” Dodds said in a statement. Loans are a way for them to get the minutes they require. The issue isn’t the loan itself, but rather selecting the correct form of loan for any participant – Jewi or otherwise – and what they require.
“The debate around Jewi will be not so much whether he needs a loan as it will be what type of loan we can get him that is best for his development.” We are very aware, whether it is Jewi or any other young player, that the greatest way to develop them is for them to play minutes, and this is not lost on us. We’re not going to put Jewi on a squad that’s going to demolish it from top to bottom.
“We need to be very selective in terms of where we can get Jewi, where someone wants to play him, where he can practice the things that we want him to practice and get better at, where he can play a similar type of style as Sunderland.” It could be somewhere else or right here in the United States. These are the issues that we must address in order to do what is best for this football club.”
Bennette last played for Wearside as a substitute in a 5-0 win over Southampton in September. Bennette has only appeared 20 times for the Wearsiders during his one-and-a-half-year spell, despite making 12 appearances for Costa Rica on the international level. He has been spotted training with Sunderland’s first squad under new manager Michael Beale.
The Back Cats return to Championship action against Coventry City at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, although the Bennette is unlikely to play.
