Tony Mowbray appears to drop major Edouard Michut hint ahead of summer decision

Tony Mowbray appears to have dropped a major hint that Sunderland plan on signing Edouard Michut permanently this summer.

Michut has had an impressive campaign for Sunderland, establishing himself in central midfield alongside Dan Neil.

He is currently on loan from Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain, although Sunderland have an option to make that deal a permanent one in the summer, potentially for as little as €2.5million.

There has been no word from the club about whether they plan to use that option, although Mowbray may have given the game away by listing the Frenchman as midfield players Jay Matete, who is on loan at Plymouth, will have to compete with next season.

“Jay can come back in pre-season and play in the games, and we will see how he does,” Mowbray said. “I’m sure it will have benefited him to have played at Plymouth and then we will have discussions as to whether we see him as a big part of the group.

“We’ll see how things go in pre-season. I don’t want to try and pre-empt that because he will have to compete with Dan Neil, Pierre Ekwah, Edouard Michut or whoever it is we have in midfield. Football is always a competition. We’ll wait and see, but he will get a chance.”

For now at least, Matete is enjoying his time at Plymouth, where he is an important player in their bid to win promotion to the Championship next.

“He wants to play, and that was very clear from my conversations with him before his move in January,” added Mowbray. “Why would he want to be the 19th player every week? He wants to play.

“My conversations with Jay now will be about how he's found it. I am seeing his clips every week and he got a good goal and assist the other week. The lads have told me he’s enjoyed the experience, fighting for the top spot in the division at that level.”

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