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Salford City goalkeeper Matty Young during the Sky Bet League Two match at the Peninsula Stadium, Salford. Picture date: Saturday August 2, 2025. (Photo by Cody Froggatt/PA Images via Getty Images) | PA Images via Getty Images
Gav says…
I’ve always been pretty interested in Young’s progress as a young player from afar, but that interest was piqued recently when Salford City released a mini-documentary about him on their YouTube channel, which really spotlighted him as one of the most important players at the club during what’s been a hugely successful season.
They showed various people around the club talking about how exciting he is, including their co-owner Gary Neville, who was longing for a promotion so they might stand a chance of keeping him there again next season!
I knew he was good, but often, the litmus test with promising youngsters is how they do when they head out on loan, so to hear things like “We’ve got the best goalkeeper in League Two” is comforting, especially when you remember that he’s only nineteen years old.
There are always going to be higher-placed clubs sniffing around your best young players and I’d imagine that, given how well he’s done out on loan over the last couple of seasons, Matty has been no different — therefore, it’s essential that the club not only rewards him with his fine progress as a senior player by paying him a wage that merits his development, but also gives him a deal that’s a suitable length and shows that we’re committed to standing by him as he gets better and better each year.
One thing that worries me about our progress in the Premier League is whether or not we’ll see a reduction in opportunities for young players in the first team picture, but the sad fact is that to get proper chances at that level, you have to be good enough. The best way to do that is to go out on loan and do well, which is something that not enough of our best young players have done in recent times, so really, he’s setting the standard for others to follow.
His path reminds me of the one that Jordan Pickford took at a similar age.
He went all over to play games and, by the time he eventually got into Sunderland’s first team, he’d already racked up well over one hundred senior games, playing all the way from the Conference, League Two, League One and then the Championship. This ensured that once he was needed in the first team, he was ready to go — and we can only hope that the same will be true of Matty.
Frankly, if he carries on progressing like he is, it won’t be too long before he’s playing for Sunderland in the Premier League.
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Ben McKevitt says…
As with Chris Rigg, it feels like Young has been around forever by now — and you forget how young he still is (excuse the pun).
It’s great that the club has faith in him and is rewarding him with a new long term contract — equally important, however, is that he trusts the club. There isn’t a clear way into the starting lineup right now, with the incredibly capable Robin Roefs holding the solitary goalkeeping position indefinitely, but it shows that the club sees value in him, either as a player in the team or as a saleable asset.
The romantic in me would absolutely love to see him in the starting eleven in years to come, and while that may be a little while away, it certainly seems like a possibility for him.
He’s got a wealth of experience in the men’s game already and I think it would be fantastic both for him and Sunderland to get him a Championship loan. A couple more seasons of development could also see Roefs be moved on for a considerable fee, leaving a conveniently open spot for Young and Melker Ellborg to fight it out.
We’ll see what transpires, but it’s great news all round in my eyes.
Malc Dugdale says…
I think this is great news for Young and for the club, and based on what I’ve read, it’s much deserved as it shows that as a club, we very much value our academy and youth system and will invest in those with great promise.
We may have spent well over £100 million in the summer, and we have to remember we pretty much discarded a goalkeeping hero of Wembley while investing that money, but if the player has the talent and potential, we’ve proven to be happy to invest in the future of the very best young prospects.
I think Young will be loaned out again next season but assuming his development has continued at its previous levels, he may well step up the pyramid to help him accelerate his development yet again.
He’s been compared to some of the best we’ve produced, which includes Jordan Pickford — our club brought that local lad all the way being a prodigy of a young goalkeeper to an England hero, so we know what we’re on about when it comes to identifying and nurturing ability between the sticks.
Overall, I’m happy but unsurprised at this news, as the club and the player both know what the future can hold for each other, and I’m hopeful that this focus on our local young prospects means more academy products could get a chance, assuming they’re on a similar trajectory as Young in their own position.
I’m not sure how many of them we have at Young’s level of ability or potential, but to know the club still has a firm eye on the academy bodes well for the future — for us all.
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