James Fowler on Sunderland's academy products and how their development will be managed

With Fowler and manager Jack Ross battling a lengthy injury list in the early stages of the campaign, chances have been there for academy products and thus far they have been taken.

The pair brought through some impressive young talent while in charge of St Mirren, one of the reasons why Sunderland's new owners were keen to bring them to Wearside.

So far they have built on that reputation but Fowler has warned the club's youngsters that will have to show even greater hunger to keep their place in the squad.

“Even at St Mirren we had a decent reputation for producing young players and you always get that energy and freshness from them, an eagerness and a willingness to learn, which is great for coaching staff. Some players just come in and go through the motions but you always get that bit of extra hunger from the younger ones.

“But they’ve got to be there on merit as well – we’re not just going to be handing out first-team opportunities because they’re young and because we’ll get a pat on the back for playing young players. They will get judged on results as well so they need to be ready.

Meet the man helping Jack Ross rebuild Sunderland as he opens up on his role and partnership"There are opportunities there but they won’t just be handed out, they have to be earned.

“We’ve seen that Monday to Friday. We’re always assessing how they are on the training pitch, how they’re behaving around and about. Players maybe don’t always realise that but eventually they will realise. The sooner they do, the better for them.

“We’re looking to see who’s first in and who’s first away. That’s just a general thing throughout the academy.

“Especially when you get a taste of the first team it’s important they just don’t think, ‘I’ve got that, it’s fine.’ You can’t think you’re a first-team player before you’ve contributed anything yet. We’ll keep on top of that.”

Fowler predicts a bright future for a number of young players on the books but insists that he and Jack Ross will not place too much pressure on their shoulders.

He said: “In general Sunderland has produced good players.

"We saw that over the summer with the guys who were representing England. With the facility we’ve got at the Academy of Light it would be a crime if we weren’t producing players.

“We did our homework a little bit over the summer before the players came back. We saw that Bali Mumba had played at the end of the season and how young he was. We were keen to get in and see how these players are.

“Bali’s showed that he is a special talent and it’s just important to remember what age he is. He’s not yet 17 and he’s got his exam results next week so it’s important there’s not a lot of expectation on him from outside.

“We support him, and people like Maja and Denver Hume, who was excellent on Thursday playing out of position.

“Embleton’s been away with England and he’s another one.”