The Aaron Connolly interview: Why I'm relishing fresh start at Sunderland and my clear hopes for the future

Aaron Connolly has a wry smile as he contemplates the slightly unexpected place he's found himself, a 'boring' footballer and not far off a grizzled veteran compared to most of his new team-mates.

It's also, he thinks, the happiest he's ever been since the early days of his move to Brighton & Hove Albion. After arriving on Wearside the 24-year-old spoke bravely and openly about the struggles he went through with alcohol addiction in the years that followed, and the mistakes he made as a result. While understanding that it's a long road ahead, just over a month into his Sunderland career he has the feeling of having started a new chapter in his life. Calm, quiet and peace are words used more than once as he reflects on his fresh start. While his new role as (relative) elder statesman of the squad has taken a little adjusting to, it's one he is embracing.

"It's hard you know, to flip that," he told The Echo.

"I've always been able to get away with being immature, messing about in training, and the older boys are telling me [off]. Now I've got to set that example. I feel boring! I'm a lot different to how I was at Brighton, I was speaking to one of the boys about a normal day for me now and I had this thought to myself, 'I feel old'. I think I'm maturing. But honestly, my life has been so hectic over the last four or five years that a bit of peace, a bit of boring... it's a good thing. I'm comfortable with it, I'm happy to just actually be a professional footballer.

"Part of going into rehab was to get that life back with family and friends, so the next club I went into I could give everything," he added.

"I wanted to be able to give 100% on and off the pitch and at the moment I have that - I know it's just about staying consistent on that now. Honestly, it's the happiest I've been in a long, long time - probably since I was first moving to Brighton. I'm just comfortable in my own company, which I couldn't do before. It's a nice feeling but again, I have to be consistent with it."

Connolly signed a one-year contract at Sunderland, both player and club making a pragmatic decision to assess their progress down the line before committing to a longer deal. The striker himself, though, is clear: He is here to impress and earn a longer stay in an environment in a city that has quickly started to feel like it could be home.

"Of course [I'm hoping to stay]," Connolly said.

"It's only a year and I had that at Hull, it's tough to get settled. I was hoping I might get two years at Hull but that wasn't how it worked out - I was planning on maybe buying a place etc. That side of it, I want to get settled somewhere. I had that at Brighton and I was flying for a while, but then you're bouncing around places. I don't want to be this journeyman footballer at 26, who has had nine, ten clubs. And this is some club [to be at].

"I said when I came that I wanted to have somewhere in Sunderland [to live], so I could settle here,” he added.

“It's a nice place and it's what I needed. It's a quiet place where I can get back to working, focusing on football. It's definitely somewhere I could see myself staying for a long time.

"I go to a gym nearby and you bounce into Sunderland fans everywhere, Tesco, the gym... I've had a lot of nice comments. it's definitely a similar feel to being at home in Ireland, it's a homely feel. I think the people are quite similar, hard-working people - so I definitely get a good kind of vibe which I haven't always been able to get [in my career so far]."

Connolly is itching for his first start and more minutes but he's also prepared to be patient, understanding that it's a long season but also respectful of the exceptional form Wilson Isidor has produced since moving into a central striking role. The Irishman is willing to bide his time as he continues to build to full fitness.

"It's been brilliant, on and off the pitch," he said.

"The boys are obviously flying and there's a good vibe. It was the perfect time to come in and I'm just trying to push as hard as I can to get into the starting XI, but Wilson is making it tough at the minute. He's a big personality and it's always good to have that around the dressing room, and he backs it up on the pitch to be fair to him. He's flying, scoring goals, and I'm here to push him to be the best he can be and vice versa. We've got Eliezer as well, we're all pushing each other, it can only benefit the club to have that."

Connolly was speaking at Sunderland’s open training session at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday, where around 2,000 fans turned out to see the Black Cats put through their paces by Regis Le Bris. Both Isidor and Mayenda trained fully alongside Connolly, meaning Le Bris is likely to have a wealth of options at his disposal when the Black Cats travel to QPR this weekend.