With Sunderland’s younger players showing real progress, David Moyes is feeling confident about the club's future as he keeps one eye on the Black Cats' potential future stars.
Encouraging signs shown in recent wins at Bournemouth and Hull City have seen Sunderland claw their way to three points from safety.
And with several young players in the match-day squad, Moyes believes the club are well set for the long-term.
Moyes said: “We have Jordan Pickford who is 22, Paddy McNair and Donald Love both 21, Didier Ndong, 22, and even Adnan [Januzaj] and Jason Denayer is young."
However, it has been announced recently that McNair will out for the rest of the season after rupturing his cruciate ligament.
With the high hopes of the success and the positive progress to “continue to grow” and the main role model to look to is Pickford, who has broken through aged just 22.
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Ones to look out for
Duncan Watmore is another one to look for and to keep at the Stadium of Light, as he is starting to make head’s turn when he “scored” for the England Under-21s.
He is showing signs that he could one day be a 30 goal-a-season player.
“Sometimes you never recognise the new team getting built until it is actually there,” Moyes added.
Javier Manquillo is too only young at 22 years old. The defender has also been a part of Spain Under-21s during the recent international break.
He concluded: “The boys we have brought in have nearly almost all been young players and I think there is an element of going towards building a new younger team.”
In the win over Hull, Pickford (22), Denayer (21), Watmore (22) Ndong (22) all started while Manquillo (22), Januzaj (21), Love (21) and Lynden Gooch (20) were on the bench.