Jack Rodwell: Older and wiser Sunderland midfielder finally ready to get back on track

After struggling at City and fading with England, the one-time teenage prodigy is rebuilding at Sunderland

Jack Rodwell of Sunderland celebrates scoring his goal during the Premier League match between Sunderland and Manchester United (GETTY IMAGES)

Towards the end of a conversation with Jack Rodwell at Sunderland’s training ground, the talk reverts to his beginning: Everton, David Moyes and the days when Rodwell was the next big teenage thing coming through the Goodison Academy.

When Rodwell made his Everton debut aged 16 against AZ Alkmaar in December 2007, the focus was on his youth. He was becoming Everton’s youngest-ever player in Europe. Replacing Thomas Gravesen – Alkmaar coach Louis van Gaal looking on – Rodwell stepped into midfield for the last 10 minutes.

What strikes Rodwell today is not just his age but the fact he played in midfield. As he says: “Up until my debut, I don’t think I played centre-mid more than five times.”

Ever since that freezing night in north Holland, however, central midfield has been Rodwell’s position. It is where he made an impact with Everton, where Manchester City and, last August, Sunderland signed him to play – for a combined £22m – and where he made his England debut four long years ago.

Rodwell was 20 then, a boy. Now 24, a father, he explains: “I played centre-half the whole time. England Under 16, Under 17, Under 18, I played centre-half. But back then David Moyes thought it was difficult to throw a 16-year-old in there. There was a big hype around me. He wanted me to fulfil my potential, he wanted to get me in as early as possible.

“For him to do that, he didn’t want to put me in a centre-back and I understand that, an inexperienced 16-year-old coming up against [Didier] Drogba. He didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to do it either. ‘Don’t play me there!’

“So midfield. He [Moyes] realised I could play, I wasn’t about just kicking it long and winning headers. He played me in midfield and I’ve not looked back. But one day, you never know. I believe I could be a good centre-half.”

Moyes often compared Rodwell to Rio Ferdinand. “He always used to say that to me,” Rodwell says. “I believe that as well. I believe I’ve got all the tools to do it: tall, quick, strong. I can play out from the back as well. I believe it’s there.”

Would you like it? “I wouldn’t not like it. I’d played there all my life. It’s natural to me. I think I could adjust quite easily.”

Does Dick Advocaat know this, bearing in mind Sunderland’s defensive frailties? “I think he half-knows it,” Rodwell replies. “[Sporting director] Lee Congerton knows it quite well. Last season we tried it a little bit, just in training, but it wasn’t the right time. In training, if there’s a defender missing, it’ll always be me who steps back in.”

Rodwell adds that “midfield is a harder position, it’s 360 degrees,” but at a time when Sunderland have signed Yann M’Vila, Jeremain Lens and Ola Toivonen, Rodwell is not trying to talk himself out of his position. A return to central defence is an intriguing possibility, though, one with potential international repercussions.

Rodwell says his intention this season is to do so well for Sunderland he “gets back in the England squad”. He has three England caps, two from November 2011, the third in Brazil in 2013 before the World Cup.

Rodwell did not make Roy Hodgson’s squad and accepts, ahead of Tottenham’s visit to the Stadium of Light today, that Spurs midfielder Ryan Mason has moved ahead of him. “He has gone past me now really,” Rodwell says. “I don’t think he’s a better player than me, no. But, he’s in the England squad. I’m chuffed for him, I know him and he’s a nice lad.”

In professional football, niceness is often an accusation. It is one thrown at Rodwell. Just this week Advocaat has asked to see Rodwell’s “nasty” side. “I see what he means,” Rodwell says. This, allied to hamstring injuries and the perhaps premature move to City from Everton in 2012, when he was 21, are cited as explanations as to why Rodwell, once part of the future of English football, is fighting for a place at a struggling club such as Sunderland.

Signed by Roberto Mancini at City, Rodwell became peripheral and was sold by Manuel Pellegrini. He is used as an example of young English players – Scott Sinclair and Fabian Delph too – who get lost in the Premier League money-go-round. With gentle force, Rodwell responds: “You say ‘go where the money is’, but I know Scott, and I know that’s not the reason why I made the move to Manchester City.

“I moved because they’d just won the Premier League, they had shown interest me. You’re a young player getting the chance to play with world-class players on the biggest stage, the Champions League. That was my dream, the biggest stage.

“Looking from the outside, I understand. But if you believe in your own ability – I believed in mine – I believed I could go to City and play. In my first season after Mancini signed me I was injured a lot but when I was fit he did play me. I was unfortunate he left. We’d had meetings towards the end of the season where he said I was a big part of the next season. But then Pellegrini came in and things changed. I could have sat there and took the money. I didn’t.”

With a full pre-season, Rodwell declares himself “100 per cent” fit and ready to stir the “sleeping giant” he calls Sunderland. If and how, and from where on the pitch he does this, will be of interest far beyond Wearside.

Sunderland v Tottenham is on Sky Sports 1, kick-off 1.30pm