Loaned to club number three in as many years by Manchester City, Jason Denayer is finally finding some first-team action football at Sunderland under David Moyes.
First used as a right-back, the player also helped out down the left and at his natural centre-back position before being placed in midfield over the past five Premier League games.
Unable to stop Chelsea from picking up a win at the Stadium of Light, Denayer seems to have convinced his manager he has a part to play, even if results aren’t exactly going Sunderland’s way at the moment.
Already staring at the bottom of the Premier League when he made the move north on the 31st of August, Sunderland’s position in the table nearly cost them, as revealed by Denayer’s agent, Jesse de Peter, in Sport/Foot Magazine this week.
He said: “They weren’t our first choice, but they were the safest. Jason would have preferred playing alongside Virgil Van Dijk at Southampton, with who he had a great season at Celtic (in 2014), but that rested on factors that were out of our control.”
With José Fonte finally renewing his contract at St Mary’s, Denayer had to settle with a move to Sunderland, even though he had an offer from AC Milan, which Txiki Begiristain and Manchester City refused to entertain.
De Peter said: “Quickly [after the Euros], AC Milan approached us. Obviously, this was something Jason wanted, with Italy being the ‘university of defending’, but Txiki Begiristain finally preferred seeing him play in England.”
Helped by compatriot Adnan Januzaj and Papy Djilobodji to find some joy in Sunderland, Denayer is finally finding his smile again, even if he isn’t a regular in the Belgium national team, an aim of his.
But that will come, and if he can help David Moyes and Sunderland turn things around for the Black Cats, Roberto Martinez won’t be far behind dialling his number.
