In an exclusive interview with The Echo, Patrick Roberts opens up on his emotional Sunderland exit and move to Birmingham City
Patrick Roberts answers the phone the way he used to receive the ball - calmly, warmly, without fuss. There is no ceremony to it. No sense of occasion. Just the familiar tone of someone completely at ease with himself and his legacy at Sunderland.
Roberts has never been one for grand declarations. Even now - double promotion hero, fan favourite, the player whose left foot and quicksilver imagination gave Sunderland a pulse when they were still trying to remember what a heartbeat felt like - he speaks like a man who has already made peace with what football does to you.
I ask him the question Sunderland supporters have been asking themselves since the moment his departure became real. Has it actually sunk in? "I think once I left, it sunk in a little bit. I had the extra year on my contract, but I knew from the direction of me coming here that it would probably be the end – it's just how football goes.
"Then I just started cracking on here at Birmingham. I had conversations here and they were willing to sign me, and I was willing to sign. I think the first six months made it easier, but I always watch Sunderland, all the games, because I've still got mates there. Once Birmingham started to ask if I wanted to sign permanently, it kicked in and it was just another step in my career."
Sunderland have evolved quickly since promotion - not just into a Premier League side, but into a Premier League club, with all the ruthless edge that phrase implies. Roberts left in the summer after promotion, joining Birmingham City initially on loan. By January, the deal was permanent. The club he helped drag forward from League One had moved into the next phase, and Roberts - adored, iconic, still capable of changing a match with one touch - made a decision that felt both logical and quietly painful.
I put it to him that it must be bittersweet. "Yeah," he answers. "Four years in football seems like quite a long time. Not many players last that long. To spend four years and to do what we did, I've got great pride in that and it was what I hoped for when I first went in. It was a difficult time and we had a long way to go, but going in there that was what I wanted to achieve.
“To achieve that and to leave after achieving that, I found great pleasure in. Just to see how well Sunderland are doing right now is credit to the club and how they've been run over the last five years. It was a wonderful time and I do really miss it, but you move on to other things and that is football. You move on and make a home somewhere else, so it's one of those things."
Four years. In Sunderland time, that is indeed a lifetime. He arrived in the grime and uncertainty of League One and left with two promotions on his CV, his name stitched into the club's modern folklore. It is easy to forget, amid the current Premier League brightness, just how vital Roberts was to the climb - how often the ball simply found him when Sunderland needed a solution, how naturally the Stadium of Light leaned towards him in hope.
That bond is what makes the next part so important. Was he pushed? Was this a club decision? Did Sunderland tell a fan favourite it was time - or did Roberts choose to step away? "I don't know," Roberts ponders. "If you see the direction Sunderland were going, I had honest conversations with the manager. He was always great with me. I'd speak to him all the time...
“Towards the end it was more down to me,” Roberts added. “The manager was happy for me to stay and be part of the squad. At my age, and with interest elsewhere, I thought I needed to go and play. I didn't want to get odd appearances here and there and further down the line have it affect me next year.
"At some point you've got to think from a selfish point of view, and Sunderland have to think from a selfish point of view as well. But they never pushed me out. I wanted to go for myself. They were brilliant and allowed me to do that, which I was thankful for. We split on good terms. It was never one way or the other. We just had a conversation and that was it."
That is Roberts in a sentence: self-aware enough to admit the selfish element, respectful enough to stress Sunderland never forced his hand, and honest enough to say he needed minutes. You can hear the professionalism in it - the quiet acceptance that sentiment doesn't pick the team, and nostalgia doesn't protect your career.
And yet, there is an unavoidable irony here. Sunderland have spent parts of this season searching for rhythm on the right-hand side of their attack, looking for a spark that Roberts has been able to provide his entire career: intelligent, brave, able to play football in tight spaces and create something from a situation that looks like nothing.
So I ask him directly. Did it feel counterproductive that he was out on loan at a time Sunderland could have used him? "Yes. If that was the case, I'd have been happy to stay (and play regularly). I was there for four years and to play for Sunderland was amazing for me. If I had to stay there, I would have stayed.
“But I had the opportunity to go elsewhere and the club were happy for me to do that. They were gracious enough to let me explore that. It's all ifs and buts in football. You never know what could happen. I felt I needed to go out and play at my age, and that's what I did. It just so happened, and I was glad for the last four years. I loved every minute being at Sunderland."
That last line lands. He "loved every minute" - and you can tell by his voice that he genuinely means it. Roberts spent years bouncing between clubs on loan - talent obvious, stability rare. At Sunderland, he finally planted roots. He became an adopted Mackem. "I think for me it was more of a fresh start," Roberts adds, reflecting on his early days at Sunderland following several short temporary stints at the likes of Derby County, Middlesbrough and Norwich Cit. "I'd just left Manchester City. I was there for seven years. I was on loan, but I was stuck in France.
"I had the opportunity to come. I'd seen a game they played on the 31st of December. They beat Sheffield Wednesday at home 5-0. I was in the stands and went to watch that game, and then I went home thinking, 'Yeah, I want to come here.' It took a while to get everything sorted, but when I walked in the door I felt I had a clean slate. It was far from that at City. It was the first time I'd been permanently at a club since I was a kid. It was a fresh slate, a fresh start.
"I just wanted to go and make it my home. I was only on a six-month contract, but I got another couple of years and then signed another one after that. I have full gratitude to Sunderland for sticking by me. I feel I repaid them. I tried to do that as much as I could. I'm sure I did in some way. I was grateful to have full support from the fans. My family loved coming up to watch Sunderland games. It was always an amazing time."
This is the part Sunderland fans will linger on. The image of Roberts in the stands for that 5-0 win, watching a club still bruised by years of failure suddenly look alive again, and thinking: I want to be part of that. The detail feels almost cinematic, yet it is delivered with his usual understatement. It also explains why he became what he became on Wearside. Sunderland were not just a stop for him. They were a reset. A blank page. A chance to build a story that was his own.
I put it to him directly: did that bond with Sunderland make it emotionally difficult to walk away, and deep down, did it truly feel like the right moment to do so? "Yeah, I did feel sad. When you're at a club for a few years and you do what we did, you feel at home and it feels normal. I always feel like I can do more and perform, but at the same time, I know at my age I need to go and play games and show other people what I can do. That's just the way it is. I think it was the right time to leave.
"I've done what I needed to do, and the club going in a certain direction is completely understandable. I don't have any grudges over that. I needed to do what was right for me, and the club needed to do what was right for them. We had great years together, so the right time was probably right. Sometimes you don't leave on good terms with other clubs, but I can't say a bad word about them. I was grateful to both Sunderland and Birmingham City."
That answer contains everything - the affection, the acceptance, the understanding that both things can be true at once. He can miss Sunderland and still know it was time to move on and be happy and excited to play for Birmingham City, emotions are complicated things The connection does not vanish because the shirt changes, but neither does football stand still for sentiment. Careers are short. Opportunities are fleeting.
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Birmingham City recognised that. What began as a loan in the summer after promotion became permanent in January - a club with its own history and ambition deciding Roberts was not simply passing through, but worth committing to. For him, it is not a rejection of Sunderland. It is the next step in the consistency and purpose he rebuilt on Wearside - proof that what he rediscovered there still has value elsewhere.
As the call draws to a close, there’s a feeling he has given more than just half an hour of his time. Not in length, but in honesty. “For what it’s worth, you’re definitely one of my favourite ever Sunderland players,” I say. “Thanks James, appreciate that,” he replies, simply and sincerely.
And that’s how it ends. No big sign-off, no dramatic flourish. Just warmth and gratitude. Much like his four years on Wearside, it finishes quietly - with the sense that, wherever he goes next, a part of Roberts’ soul will always belong at the Stadium of Light.
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