Wilson Isidor outlines desire for permanent Sunderland transfer | OneFootball

The on-loan striker has become an instant hit with the Black Cats faithful, and has made no secret of his wish to stay on Wearside for the long-term.

Wilson Isidor wants to remain a Sunderland player beyond 2024/25, and the Black Cats have the option to make his season-long loan deal with Zenit St Petersburg a permanent one.

That's from a report in the Sunderland Echo on Thursday. The 24-year-old striker made the move to Sunderland with a week to go in the summer transfer window, as Regis Le Bris looked to strengthen his cutting edge in attack.

After being slowly introduced to the side via brief cameos from the bench, the former French youth international has started in Sunderland's last two Championship fixtures, to great effect.

Isidor opened his Black Cats account in 2-1 away defeat to Watford, before following that up by scoring his second goal in as many games in a 2-0 win over Derby County last time out.

He's quickly struck up a connection with the Stadium of Light faithful, and now the on-loan striker has revealed that he'd like to stay in the North East for the long-term...

For some players, heading out on loan affords them the opportunity to find their future home, and that certainly appears to be the case for Isidor.

As reported via the Sunderland Echo, Isidor said: "I am on loan but with an optional buy. But no, for me, I want to continue with Sunderland and write the club into my career and my history."

"They are amazing," Isidor would say regarding Sunderland supporters. "I was in Zenit and Zenit has a stadium of about 75,000 and even if the Stadium of Light is a bit smaller than this stadium, you feel it. Everything you do when you tackle, when you make a good action and when you score that's amazing.

"I have never had one one shot of adrenaline like I had today and I hope scoring more important games will get more emotion because it becomes like a drug when you feel it you want to feel it every day, every game, every game, every game.

"I knew it was a big club because I watched the series on Netflix, so it makes you understand where you put your feet. You know that those people live for football and they dedicate all their life for this club and as a player, like for me personally, you want to give them back, you want to make them proud to come to the stadium."

Isidor could be Sunderland's Ross Stewart replacement

Over the past two seasons, the burden of scoring Sunderland's goals has largely fallen on the shoulders of their excellent wide players, such as Jack Clarke, Patrick Roberts and Amad Diallo.

Prior to that, current Southampton striker Ross Stewart had fired the club into League One, before missing the majority of the 2022/23 season and then moving to the Saints last year.

Centre-forwards such as Charlie Wyke, Josh Maja, Lewis Grabban and Jermain Defoe had all enjoyed double-figure goalscoring seasons in previous years too, but since the 'Loch Ness Drogba's' departure from Wearside, Sunderland have struggled to source his replacement.

Ukrainian Nazariy Rusyn has yet to consistently prove that he can score goals at Championship level, whilst Mason Burstow scored just one league goal in 20 appearances on loan from Chelsea last season.

Luis Hemir Semedo showed that he wasn't quite ready to play second tier football last term either, and has since moved to Juventus' Next Gen squad on loan for the 2024/25 season, who play in the lower leagues of Italian football.

But, after two starts and two very well-taken goals from Isidor, he's showing that he could be that finisher up front that the club have been searching for.

If Isidor can keep finding the back of the net, not only will it keep Sunderland on course for a return to the Premier League, but it will also allow Le Bris to ease the burden on young Eliezer Mayenda's shoulders, which could in-turn extract better performances from the young Spaniard.

Should his early season performances be replicated throughout the season, then Isidor is surely a player that Sunderland will want to keep around long-term, a decision that the striker seems to have already put in the Black Cats' court.