Tony Mowbray says Sunderland's crop of late August overseas signings are still not ready to start Championship games - although he says they have proved they can make an impact from the bench. The Black Cats brought in four youngsters towards the end of the summer transfer window, with Jewison Bennette arriving from Costa Rica, Edouard Michut on loan from Paris St Germain, Abdoullah Ba from Le Havre, and Amad Diallo on loan from Manchester United.
Of those, only Amad has a start to his name, while the others have only been involved as substitutes. Mowbray is a big believer in the talents of the quartet, but says they are still finding their feet - particularly the three teenagers who have arrived from overseas - both in a footballing sense, and as far as adapting to life in a new country is concerned.
They are gradually building up gametime from the bench, and as the weeks go by Mowbray says they will reach a stage where they are ready to go into the starting XI. "We've got some really talented footballers and I deal with them for four or five hours every day," said Mowbray.
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"Yet they are young boys, they are acclimatising to a new country, to a new football club, to a new dressing room. They don't know how to pay their bills, they're not sure how to get their phones sorted out, there's so much going on in their lives, and then you throw them on in a game where there are 40,000 people watching and expecting things from them.
"I think they just need a little bit of time. As the seasons unfolds, the 30 minutes you are getting towards the end of games will become 60 minutes from the start - not every week, because I will have to assess in three game weeks whether I think you can do back-to-back-to-back because in France or Italy or Costa Rica or wherever, they are maybe not playing at those intensity levels and so often.
"I just have to try and manage them into the team. I like them, I like their qualities - I wouldn't be putting them on the pitch if I didn't think they were ready.
"But I don't think at this moment that they are ready to start football matches, to make the impact that the players they would replace would be bringing. I feel as though we have maybe 13 or 14 players with genuine trust that I could pick in whatever formation or whatever order, but then there's another six or seven that I genuinely think can make an impact in a football match.
"Their challenge is to get this 13 or 14 into 16, 17, or 18. Then it doesn't matter if I'm playing Corry Evans or I'm playng Edouard Michut, or Abdoullah Ba against Dan Neil, Jack Clarke or Jewi [Bennette].
"They have to get themselves to that level. They can all do the same job but I am resting them because I think their particular talent is more beneficial.
"At this moment, I think they are building up to that."
Some of those youngsters are likely to be on the bench when Sunderland take on Burnley at the Stadium of Light tomorrow. And they could also be involved on Sunday, when Sunderland's U21s head to St George's Park to face Stoke City in the Premier League 2.
Sunderland go into the Burnley game with three players on four yellow cards - Alex Pritchard, Luke O'Nien, and Jack Clarke - meaning each is one booking away from a one-match ban. Mowbray says the young players need to look at the U21 game as a chance to get match-fit, just in case a suspension opens the door to a first-team call-up.
Mowbray said: "I'm probably going to sit and talk to those boys tomorrow and say 'please don't see it as a punishment if we stick you on a bus at half-past seven to got to St George's Park on Sunday morning. You have to play 90 minutes of football, you have to be ready, because your moments are just around the corner.
"Don't sulk that you have to go with the young players to play Stoke City at St George's Park - it's England's training centre, it will be an amazing pitch, an amazing environment, go and play 90 minutes of football and come back ready because this might be the weekend where we pick up some crucial bookings. If they get off the bench [against Burnley] and play 40 minutes or 35 minutes, they probably won't be going on Sunday.
"But you can't just be on the fringe all the time, you need to play football and the U21s is a good platform for these lads to do that."
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