Sunderland will hope their current turbulent season in the Championship is just a bump in the road on the way to a sustained promotion push happening next campaign.
Mike Dodds' men find themselves occupying a disappointing 13th spot in the second-tier standings with just three games left to play, not involved in any of the drama near the top of the division whilst being stuck in the middle.
Young gems such as Chris Rigg and Jobe Bellingham - who have both starred in patches this season - will have matured even more by the time a ball is kicked to start next campaign, with the future bright on Wearside when looking at the number of top youngsters coming through.
This emerging talent at the Stadium of Light could well grow to become the best of the bunch if given time, with his style of play already being likened to Jack Clarke's skill set.
The next Jack Clarke
17-year-old Tom Watson won't be fazed just yet by the outlandish praise fielded his way by football journalist Josh Bunting, who described the up-and-coming left winger as "like Jack Clarke" in terms of his directness marauding forward for the U21s.
Watson is also playing like a goal machine for the U21s like the former Tottenham Hotspur man is for the first-team, bagging in his last two Premier League 2 appearances to take his goal total for the season in the youth ranks to eight strikes from 14 games.
Managing 23 goals from 57 appearances overall now, Watson will be itching for a first-team opportunity very soon and it wouldn't be out of the ordinary if Dodds opts to throw the teenage sensation into the deep end based on his team selections as interim boss.
Rigg, who is one year younger than the 17-year-old starlet, has accumulated 18 Championship appearances this season whilst Bellingham - who is just one year older - has managed to fire in seven strikes in the league even during such an up-and-down campaign for his side.
Throwing Watson into the first-team mix for Sunderland's final Championship games could mean Abdoullah Ba is pushed down the pecking order to accommodate, with the 20-year-old attacker notably lacklustre when his team has struggled this season.
Why Abdoullah Ba could be replaced by Watson
Ba could be sweating about his immediate future on Wearside if Watson is bumped up to the senior ranks and thrives, meaning his position as back-up to Clarke is filled by someone fresher and more exciting.
The Frenchman has been largely below-par this season for the Black Cats, shockingly winning just two of his 14 duels in Sunderland's 4-2 collapse at St. Mary's last month amongst other dire displays.
Ba did put in a competent performance during Sunderland's 2-0 win over Cardiff City to end March - with the 20-year-old winger finishing with a 100% successful dribble completion rate - but the out-of-favour youngster hasn't been in the first-team since and has found himself mainly rooted to the substitutes bench.
The time might be right, therefore, for a different youngster to move into the spotlight over the inconsistent 20-year-old in the form of Watson.
With Sunderland not playing for anything anymore whilst the season winds down, and Ba finding himself on the sidelines as a fringe figure, Watson could perfectly slot into the senior fold in the coming weeks to test if he's made of stern stuff and whether he can live up to his Clarke comparisons.
