Anthony Patterson has been offered a new one-year contract at Sunderland in the clearest indication yet that the young goalkeeper could soon make his first-team debut for the Black Cats, according to the Sunderland Echo.
The decision to bring a premature conclusion to the League One season certainly hasn’t gone down well in Wearside.
With Sunderland denied the chance to force their way into the play-off places, Phil Parkinson’s side have been consigned to a third successive campaign in division three.
As a result, any hopes they had of keeping Jon McLaughlin at the Stadium of Light have gone up in smoke.
The Scotland international will be a free agent in two weeks’ time and a move to Blackburn Rovers feels like a formality.
That means Sunderland are under pressure to replace arguably the finest goalkeeper in League One – on a shoestring budget no less.
So if only they had a promising youngster ready and waiting to make the step up to first-team level, saving his side a rather substantial sum of money in the process.
And that is where Patterson, the 20-year-old shot-stopper with a huge future, comes in.
Like McLaughlin, Patterson was set to leave Sunderland on a free in July. But, unlike McLaughlin, a new contract feels like a formality with the Echo reporting that he has been offered a further 12 months on Wearside.
With Lee Burge the only other goalkeeper at Parkinson’s disposal, expect to see Patterson making his senior bow sooner rather than later.
“I’ve really enjoyed working with him. He’s got the best hands of a young goalkeeper, well probably any goalkeeper, I’ve worked with for a long time. He’s got great hands,” coach Lee Butler told the Chronicle last year, comparing Patterson to a certain Jordan Pickford.
“He makes big saves and he’s a good shot-stopper.”
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