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Graeme Murty has revealed Luke O’Nien’s classy post-match gesture after Sunderland’s U21s draw with Anderlecht
Graeme Murty praised Luke O’Nien’s leadership - and Granit Xhaka’s influence on Sunderland’s youngsters - following the under-21s’ 2-2 draw with Anderlecht at the Stadium of Light.
O’Nien made his first appearance since recovering from a shoulder injury suffered in last season’s play-off final, and Murty revealed how the 30-year-old went above and beyond after full-time - taking part in the post-match debrief and speaking directly to the club’s academy players about the importance of constant self-improvement.
"So for Luke O'Nien, for example, who's just talked about debrief, he's going to be in the debrief. He's going to talk through his clips, things he needs to do better, and he's just been really open in the changing room and talks about the review process and how you continue to get better at his age and stage of his career.
"He's talking to our young players about the need and the right and also the privilege to review what you've done in order to continue to develop. So that makes my job as a developer really, really easy when you have someone of that standing talking to our young players in that way. It's fantastically refreshing and we're really grateful."
Murty said the presence of O’Nien - along with Granit Xhaka, Régis Le Bris and Kristjaan Speakman - created a powerful learning environment for Sunderland’s next generation, with the club maintaining a youth and developmental focus despite promotion to the Premier League.
"Ben Middlemas, for example, Harrison Jones, can talk to Granit about certain situations and he'll actually see what they've done, and he can challenge and he can question and we can do the same," Murty said after the game against Anderlecht.
"About playing in front of Le Bris, Xhaka and Speakman: It's good because not only does it show how good you can be, you can have the conversation with it," Murty said. "For Luke to do what he did, it just shows the type of professional he is, and how he represents what we want Sunderland players to be."
The U21s lead coach also praised how senior players like O’Nien, Brian Brobbey, Eliezer Mayenda and Anthony Patterson set the tone in what he described as an invaluable development fixture. "It's great because you just look around and you get reassurance from him (O'Nien)," Murty explained. "
My challenge to the young players was that they need to go and prove that they deserve to stand shoulder to shoulder in a first team training room with people like Luke (O'Nien) and Brian (Brobbey) and Eli (Mayenda), and Patta (Patterson).
"And there's no better time to show that than when you're playing on a stage like this with first-team players. If you can go and influence and go and dictate and go and be a dominant character in the game while you have those types of people in there, that will stand you in good stead. Our young players need to know how to talk to first-team players.
"We get loads of experience training with the guys, we get loads of interaction with them, which is fantastic. They now need to go and take that into a performance setting so that they can actually feel confident enough to move Luke O'Nien if they think he needs to be in a different position.
“Because let's be honest, Luke won't be shy in telling you where to stand. So they need to develop that, and this has been a fantastic vehicle for that, and we're really grateful to the first team for supporting our young team in that way."
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Murty added that the involvement of first-team figures in academy fixtures underlines the standards being set at the club - and the growing togetherness between Sunderland’s senior and development squads. "We see week in, week out how demanding the Premier League is. We see how intense it is, and they are professional enough to understand. They know their own bodies that I need to be ready, I need to put the building blocks in place to make sure I can perform because our first-team horizon, shall we say, has changed somewhat.
"They're in a good moment, they're enjoying the Premier League, and we said to all the players, first team, young team, who wouldn't want to be a part of that? Here's a fantastic opportunity and a brilliant pitch in a fantastic stadium to go and show all of the Assemble staff how good you can actually be."
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