Sam Allardyce had no hesitation about granting Duncan Watmore’s request for a day off on Thursday in order to attend his graduation ceremony at Newcastle University.
Sunderland’s England Under-21 winger secured a first class honours degree in economics and business management and his manager could not have been more delighted to see pictures of the 21-year-old wearing his gown.
“It was a great pleasure to give Duncan time off for his graduation,” said Allardyce whose side are at home to Watford on Saturday. “If he works as hard at his football as he has had to work to get his degree, then he is going to be a top footballer. He’s got a lot of ability and we will soon find out if he has a football brain – he certainly has an academic brain.
“Missing a day’s training won’t affect him. He’s 21 so he can run all day and all night. It won’t have any bearing on selection for Saturday.”
Allardyce will consider requests for time off but, during his days in charge of Bolton, he soon ran out of patience with El Hadji Diouf.
“He was the strangest one because his gran died twice,” said Sunderland’s manager. “El Hadji Diouf would do anything or say anything to get a day off. The problem for Dioufy was that he forgot she had already died once when he mentioned it the second time. If Dioufy didn’t have to do exercise, I am sure she would never have died at all.”
A very different character, Watmore began his degree at Manchester University while he was playing for Altrincham, switching to Newcastle after joining Sunderland. “It’s a really nice feeling,” he said following the ceremony. “It’s been a lot of hard work in the past three years.”
Along the way the son of Ian Watmore, a former FA chief executive, deliberately shunned Newcastle University’s late night student scene. “You have to sacrifice a lot but that was something I was more than willing to do,” he said.
“It was not the typical student life. I missed out on a few things but I really enjoyed it. There were a lot of long nights in my flat just catching up, reading textbooks, going online for lectures, emailing lecturers.
“It was hard at times but Sunderland were awesome with me, and so were Newcastle University. They were both always willing to compromise to help me to get through, they were massive in what I achieved and so I’m very grateful for that.”
It is still rare for footballers to combine advanced academic studies with professional careers but Watmore received perhaps unexpected backing from his Sunderland team-mates. “You get a bit of good-natured banter but they’re class,” he said. “I received a lot of support from them, which was really nice.”
Allardyce meanwhile will allow Vito Mannone to leave Wearside in January should he receive the right offer. Costel Pantilimon has secured the first-choice goalkeeping position and the club accept that the former Arsenal reserve does not want to end his career sitting on the bench.
Accordingly Jordan Pickford, who has impressed in goal while on loan at Preston, may well be recalled from Deepdale. “Jordan Pickford’s doing so well at Preston,” said Allardyce. “We’ve spoken to Vito and he wants to be playing first team football. His contract expires at the end of the season and he may want to move out. He feels, as a player of his calibre, he should not be sitting here as a No2 . So it depends whether a club comes in and wants to take him. I have sympathy with his situation.”
