'We feel for him' - Sunderland figure reacts to Charlton Athletic transfer move falling through
Sunderland man Jewison Bennette saw a late deadline day loan move to Charlton Athletic fall through
Sunderland under-21s lead coach Graeme Murty has expressed his sympathy to Jewison Bennette after his deadline day move fell through.
The Costa Rica international has struggled to nail down a regular spot at Sunderland, having signed for the club in 2022. Bennette has shown some flashes of quality, scoring a goal for the first team away at Watford and assisting Chris Rigg’s first league strike at the Stadium of Light versus Southampton.
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After a poor loan move to Greek side Aris last season, the 20-year-old has failed to break into current senior head coach Régis Le Bris’ squad during the 2024-25 campaign and was given the green light to leave the club during the winter transfer window.
League One club Charlton Athletic came in for the winger-turned-left-back on deadline day but missed out on signing Bennette after running out of time to conclude the deal as the 11pm trading curfew came and went without the papers being signed.
When asked about Bennette after Sunderland under-21s win against Wolves at the Academy of Light on Friday, Murty said: “We feel for him. We talked to him. Obviously, we've got a close relationship with Jewi. We've known him for a long time now and, on a human level, when you look at that and dealing with that disappointment, we just have to be someone that they can talk to.
“When we see that kind of thing happen, we have to put aside the performance part of it and the football part of it and just make sure as a person they're okay. That's what we're trying to do. Jewi's generally a bubbly kind of guy so we'll make sure that we keep an eye on him over the next couple of weeks.”
Both Bennette and Joe Anderson missed the game against Wolves on Friday as Murty’s side thumped the Wanderers by five goals in the Premier League 2. Central defender Anderson also had the chance to move on deadline day to Exeter but opted to stay on Wearside. When asked about the absences, Murty said: “Those are first-team players to sort out so we just pick from the players that we're given to select from.”