Sunderland player reportedly wants transfer after disagreements with board - what the club have said

Sunderland youngster Jewison Bennette wants to leave the club on loan in January, according to reports.

Bennette has not featured much in the first team this season, though latterly he has been sidelined first by a virus and then by a minor ankle knock. The winger is expected to be fully fit very shortly but is facing significant competition for places.

But Costa Rican journalist, Kevin Jiminez, the man who broke the Bennette to Sunderland story initially during the summer of 2022, has stated that the player has grown frustrated at the club and will look to move in January.

"Jewison Bennette is not playing for Sunderland due to differences on the part of the board," he said. "According to sources, the player believes that he is not being treated with respect. The player would go out on loan in January."

Recently, Sunderland's assistant head coach Mike Dodds said a loan next month might be the best short-term option. Ideally, Sunderland would like Bennette to stay in the UK as he learns the language, but Dodds says finding the right team is equally important.

"Any of those young players who aren't playing as much as we'd like, I think it [a loan] needs to be discussed because we have invested in them and we see them as a long-term project," Dodds said. Loans are a way to fix the minutes that they need. The issue isn't the loan, it's finding the right type of loan for whichever player - Jewi or whoever else - and what they need.

"The discussion around Jewi will be not so much does he need a loan, but what type of loan can we get him that is best for his development? Whether it be Jewi or any young player, we are fully aware that the best way to develop them is for them to play minutes and that's not lost on us. We're not going to put Jewi in a team that, respectfully, is going to smash it from back to front.

"We need to be really selective in terms of where we can get Jewi where someone wants to play him, that plays a similar type of style as Sunderland where he can practice the things that we want him to practice and that we want him to get better at. It might be abroad, it might be in this country. Those are things that we need to decide for what is right for this football club."

Bennette's last senior appearance on Wearside was a late substitute in the 5-0 win over Southampton in September. Despite having made 12 appearances on the International stage for Costa Rica, Bennette has only featured 20 times for the Wearsiders during his one-and-half-year stay at the club. He has, though, been pictured training with Sunderland's first team under new coach Michael Beale.

The Back Cats return to action against Coventry City at the Stadium of Light on Saturday in the Championship but it is unlikely the Bennette will play any part in the clash.