Simon Mignolet’s form is getting him noticed but, as he tells Neil Cameron, he is taking it all in his stride.

THOSE managers and footballers who claim never to read newspapers generally tend to be the ones to pore over every single word written about them.

It’s never anything less than amusing to hear a player feign total ignorance when a club is linked with him – as if he is not even slightly interested that Real Madrid have allegedly been watching him.

Simon Mignolet is not one of these people. Is he aware Arsenal are interested in him? Of course he is. It’s been written about several times this week.The Belgian is smarter than most and wouldn’t try to pretend that the word Arsenal, or indeed Liverpool for that matter, hasn’t passed through his consciousness at least once this week.

But does this speculation affect Sunderland’s goalkeeper? Not even one tiny bit. Mignolet said: “I say to people who ask me about being linked with other clubs that it goes in one ear and out of the other.

“That’s what you are going to get as a footballer. Sometimes you are a hero and sometimes you are in the eye of a storm, so I know that things can change really quickly.

“The only thing I can do is focus on my own game, starting with the West Brom match.

“All those clubs I am linked with, if I make a mistake on Saturday, will be un-linked straight away.

“It will be the exact opposite and that’s why I don’t really get fussed about it at all.”

This is a refreshing and quite correct attitude from Mignolet whose professionalism is something to be greatly admired. Sunderland supporters should be thankful for this.

They have a top-class goalkeeper on their hands who is supremely focused and capable of pulling off outlandish saves. He makes the simple things look easy and does all this with incredible humility.

Mignolet said: “I think, as a keeper, the only thing you can do is your job. Don’t look to try and do anything spectacular. Do what is asked of you and then you are fine.

“The difference between a good goalie and a bad one is not the amount of mistakes you make, but the amount of points you have won for the team.

“What about the save that kept your team in the game? I think making mistakes in a game just happens, because only a robot cannot make mistakes. We are all humans and at the end of the day it will happen.

“Everyone will make mistakes, even Peter Schmeichel and you have to accept it and understand it.”