Sunderland boss admits fans won't like Jack Clarke replacement plan

Sunderland are getting an idea of how hard it will be to replace Jack Clarke, and Dodds says he cannot offer 'reassurances' to concerned supporters.

Mike Dodds watched his Sunderland side struggle in front of goal again at Norwich before admitting there can be no quick fix to losing Jack Clarke.

Clarke was again out injured as Sunderland lost 1-0 to Norwich and he will likely be missing for another six weeks too.

Then, in the summer, Clarke will almost certainly be sold with a plethora of clubs ready to pounce.

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Romaine Mundle, Adboullah Ba and Nazariy Rusyn have all tried to fill the void left by Clarke in the last two games, and none have really looked capable of doing it right now.

Dodds, though, says the club need time to develop a replacement – and he acknowledges fans won’t necessarily like it.

"I don’t like relying on hope, if I’m being honest,” Dodds said. “What we’ve got to keep doing is just keep working with them.

“I think the point that I made after the [Swansea] game is a really important point: there’s going to be a lot of talk around Jack but when Jack signed for the football club 18-months or so ago, Jack wasn’t the Jack you see now and that’s because Jack has listened and worked really hard. There’s been a lot of work that’s gone into him behind the scenes.

"I know in the short-term that’s not going to give the fans a huge amount of reassurance, but what we have to do is keep working with the players we’ve got.

“We can’t mope or cry around the situation we’re in. We’ll be on the training pitch every day and we won’t be hoping that one of the strikers can find some consistency, we’ll just keep working with them."

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