JACK ROSS hopes the progress Sunderland have made in a short of space time to bring the feelgood factor back to Wearside will help when it comes to keeping hold of their top talents in January.

The Black Cats boss fears greater financial rewards could play a part when the window opens if his in-form players are still impressing, but he thinks other factors could be crucial if clubs come calling.

Leading scorer Josh Maja, out of contract next summer, is a perfect case in point. He has numerous Championship clubs, including Millwall and Middlesbrough, keeping an eye on his situation.

The 19-year-old already has ten goals this season, nine in League One, a fantastic return for a player enjoying his first season as a first-team regular.

Sunderland might not be able to prevent him from leaving if a big offer comes along for Maja – or any wanted man for that matter – but Ross hopes a wide range of things are taken into account.

“These are things that individual players will weigh up and each and every one of them will have their own reasons for playing,” said Ross. “You need to have something that drives you every day – there can be ten things or one.

“Sometimes that one can be money and there’s nothing wrong with that. Sometimes people cast aspersions about it motivating footballers but it happens in every other walk of life.

“I don’t think football’s as simple as that but if that’s your only motivator you won’t take those other things into account but it’s the exception rather than the rule.

“Normally lots of other things come into it – where do you want to work? What fanbase do you want to play in front of? What’s the potential of the club? I’m sure players who attract attention do take these things into account when they’re contemplating their next move.”

Sunderland could climb to the top of League One by defeating Wycombe tomorrow, when another near 30,000 crowd is expected. They had more than 1,500 fans at Morecambe on Tuesday to watch a Checktrade Trophy group game, when Maja’s goal sealed the points.

Ross said: “I’ve not been here when things have not been going so well on the pitch to see how that impacts on the players but when it’s going well there are not many better places to go because you get adulation, without a shadow of a doubt, because of the numbers and how passionate the fans are.

“You’ve got to earn it, but they’re earning praise and adulation. They get to work in a training ground which will stand up to anything in the country and a stadia that will stand up to anything and play for a fanbase which is as passionate as any so for all those football reasons the decision (to stay) would be very simple.

“For a player, coach or manager to be associated with this club, it’s not bad. There aren’t a hell of a lot of better places to work.”

Even though Maja found the net for the tenth time at Morecambe he is not guaranteed his place against Wycombe. Jerome Sinclair has proven a worthy alternative, who offers better all-round play but hasn’t shown the same level of finishing quality.

But Ross was delighted to see Maja get back on the scoring road again after his little battle with an ankle problem sustained last month.

The Sunderland boss said: “He’s actually very hard on himself. As a young man there’s never any question of him getting carried away because he’s probably the opposite, he picks out the negatives of his performances.

“He’ll judge himself a lot on goals. His celebrations are still fairly constrained but he enjoys scoring goals, even in training, so the circumstances on Tuesday worked out well for him.

“He’s pretty consistent. He’s a pretty relaxed young man. I think it’s a positive he scored again. But I speak a lot about consistency of behaviour and it’s vital for me to have it as a manager – we can’t fluctuate our behaviours depending on whether we’ve won or lost.

“I think with players it’s a lot more difficult, especially young players, but if you can develop a mentality where how you train is never affected by how you performed on a matchday you’re off to a really good start. He’s got to train better and we’re always on his case about that, but he’s pretty consistent.”

Charlie Wyke, meanwhile, is ahead of schedule, but will not be back this weekend.

The former Bradford striker has had a difficult time with injury since moving for £1m in the summer and is recovering from a knee injury.

Ross said: “Charlie has been back on the pitch, doing some work with the physios. He is still a few weeks away from being fit, but originally we thought Christmas time he would be back, so he is ahead of schedule.”

n Tickets for the latest Tales of the Red and White book launch, tonight at the Stadium of Light with Peter Reid, can be bought on the door.