Kristjaan Speakman makes exciting Milan Aleksić reveal but has 'sensible' message for Sunderland

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Sunderland made four additions on a busy deadline day

Kristjaan Speakman believes Sunderland have landed a huge talent in Serbian midfielder Milan Aleksić after fighting off significant competition to sign the youngster.

The sporting director added, however, that the club will be patient as he adapts to a new country and language. The 19-year-old signed for the Black Cats on deadline day and has been called into the senior Serbia squad for the first time in the current international window.

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“We’ve tracked Milan for a long while, he’s a player we’ve been interested in for a significant period of time,” Speakman said.

“The issue there was just the number of competitors we were up against to try to acquire his signature. The boy, quite rightly, wanted to take his time to make the right decision. I think for us to come out on top in that competitive arena was really, really pleasing. He’s a young player who has shown real signs of future potential, and obviously this week he’s playing with the Serbian national team so that just shows you the calibre of player he is.”

Speakman says he expects Aleksić to emerge as an attacking midfielder for head coach Regis Le Bris in time but says the outstanding form of the club’s current midfield options means they can afford to be patient with their new signing as he settles.

“In the most recent professional environment he’s played in, he’s played in a number of different positions in midfield,” Speakman said.

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“We’re certainly looking for players in the midfield area who can be flexible, but who can specialise in one of the two positions we currently play with. At the moment, we tend to play with a deep-lying number six and then an eight and a ten, or however you want to describe it. I think, long term, he will probably be more of an attacking midfield player in that eight or ten role, although he has played in other positions. Expectation wise, I think the nice thing with where our squad is at, at the minute, is that he can come and adapt as quickly or as long as he needs to. There’s no pressure or need for him to come in and be a starter, or even to be coming off the bench, straight away. If he comes in and does amazingly well in training, then he’ll be like every other player and the coach will pick what he thinks is the best team. He’s here to be part of that.

“We’re really excited about him joining, we’ve just got to be sensible and relaxed around the amount of time it will take him,” Speakman added.

“His English is not quite as good as some of the other players that have joined from Europe, so we just have to embrace him in the same way that he’s embraced our opportunity because he could have gone to a load of other big, big clubs in Europe, but he’s chosen to come here which I think is a really exciting thing for Sunderland as a club.”

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