Craig Gardner hoping Sunderland move will help his England chances

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Sunderland new boy Craig Gardner has set a target of breaking into the England squad next season.

The midfielder left Birmingham at the end of last season and was eager to return to the top flight, where he hopes he can showcase his talents on a bigger stage and follow in the footsteps of former Sunderland players Darren Bent and Jordan Henderson, who both earned England caps after starring at the Stadium of Light.

The midfielder told reporters: “When you join a club, you want to know where they want to go and I knew where they wanted to go.

“They told me which players they were going to bring in, and the players they have brought in, that’s singing from the same hymn sheet as me because I want to play for England this year.

“I want to really, really improve on my career and to do that, you have got to have top quality players around with experience like they have. It’s a top club.

“If you are doing well as a club, that means you have got more chance of getting into the England team.

“But forget England for the minute – I want to really, really do well at Sunderland.”

The 24-year-old impressed last season despite Blues’ struggles, and scored 10 goals for the League Cup winners before they were relegated on the final day of the season.

“I said at the start of last season that if I didn’t score 10 goals, I would consider it a failure, and I am going to say the same this season,” Gardner added.

“I missed a lot of games last year and I could have got more. I want to be in the same boat this year, I want 10 goals to my name, and I would consider that as a big season for me again.”

Sunderland have been very active in the transfer market this summer, snapping up Wes Brown and John O’Shea from Manchester United as well as beating a number of teams to pick up starlet Connor Wickham from Ipswich Town, and Gardner believes those signings will help the squad fly up the table.

He added: “There will be big expectations now, but we have got big players – we have just signed Wes and John and Connor Wickham and players like that.

“They are top-class players. Wes and John are used to winning everything at Manchester United and hopefully, they can bring that into Sunderland because we want to be going into games now expecting to win, not expecting to draw or lose.

“We want to win games because we want to get up the table as quickly as we can.”