Sunderland academy chief Ged McNamee was proud of Mikael Mandron's progress last season.

The French striker made Sunderland's first team squad towards the end of the campaign.

"It [Mandron's first-team debut] has been a massive plus for me this season. Of course we like to get to semi-finals, we like to win leagues, but the main aim is to get these boys through to be around the first team," McNamee told safc.com.

"Mikael came to the academy as an under-16 and he's fitted in very quickly. Again he's a very well-grounded lad, you always see him with a smile on his face, he's very polite and he give