Jack Ross vows to give talented Sunderland pair their opportunity this season

The pair both impressed in Sunderland’s first pre-season friendly against South Shields after returning from loans spells at Dundee and Grimsby Town respectively.

Robson was one of the standout players in the first half, scoring a fine finish to give his side the lead.

Embleton then impressed in the second half as the Black Cats ran out comfortable 2-0 winners.

Ross revealed after the game that Embleton had agreed terms on a new deal, which is set to be signed at the beginning of next week.

The Sunderland boss is eager to see both players get a proper opportunity this season and says it would cost a ‘lot of money’ to recruit players of their calibre from elsewhere.

“You can classify them both together, Elliot and Ethan,” Ross said.

“They were in a similar position last year.

“Ethan had slightly more first team experience but they’ve both gone and played in tough, competitive leagues.

“Elliot needed to do it and Ethan needed to do it as well. The Scottish Premiership is a tough league, you play in some big stadiums against some good teams.

“I think they’ve come back matured both as people and as players, their ability then to work within a first team changing room every day.

“I’ve been really pleased with them since they came back, I want to give them every opportunity to play, they’ve got to prove they can take it but I don’t think we should be obsessed by recruiting from elsewhere when we’ve got players like that in our system,” he added.

“To go out and find a player of their abilities and attributes, it’s not easy. You’d probably have to pay a lot of money because they’re good players, we just need to add the little extra bits to their game that means they can play first team football every week.”

Denver Hume is also set for a massive opportunity this season, currently first choice left-back as the season nears.