Jack Baldwin has not featured in any of Sunderland’s three League One games so is the defender set to leave?
It doesn’t look good for Jack Baldwin at Sunderland.
A £200,000 signing from Peterborough United in the summer of 2018, the centre-back has slipped down the pecking order at the Stadium of Light and hasn’t been included in the match-day squad for any of Sunderland’s three League One games at the start of the new season.
Speaking to the Chronicle, manager Jack Ross has admitted that Baldwin might have to look elsewhere if he wants regular first-team football.
It’s certainly been quite a substantial fall from grace. After featuring in 41 games during his debut season on Wearside, Baldwin is not even worthy of a place on the bench these days.
The arrivals of the versatile Conor McLaughlin and the impressive Jordon Willis, who powered home a John Terry-esque bullet of a header during Saturday’s 2-1 win against Portsmouth, certainly haven’t helped but it seems that Baldwin is behind Tom Flanagan and Alim Ozturk too.
And Ross has hinted that a move away is the best option available to Baldwin right now.
“Possibly, it depends,” said the former St Mirren boss when asked if the 26-year-old is on his way out. “I speak to Jack a lot and he knows that if he wants to play regularly he might have to consider other options.
“But his attitude and approach to things means I would have no hesitation to using him if we needed him because he has continued to do things in the proper manner.”
The much-maligned Ozturk has been one of Sunderland’s better players in the first few weeks of the new season and with Ross seemingly swapping a three-man defence for an old-school flat-back four, there is one less place in the starting XI for Baldwin now.
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