In the end, Sunderland can consider their summer transfer window a comparative success.
The skipper, Granit Xhaka, is still on Wearside, Chelsea’s efforts to the 34-year-old resisted. Top-level experience has also been welcomed to the Stadium of Light backline. Kevin Danso and Thomas Meunier are shrewd and savvy signings. Beating Crystal Palace to Malick Fofana’s signature at the end of the window could bear dividends down the line.
Regis Le Bris has not overseen the same remarkable spending spree that led Sunderland to a seventh-place finish on their return to the Premier League, carving out a road into the Europa League.
Fofana is a fantastic signing, covering a hole out wide, but Sunderland’s right-sided depth is still questionable, and even with that in mind, Le Bris and co are ready to sell Chemsdine Talbi.
Why Sunderland are willing to sell Talbi
The transfer window might have closed in England, but Talbi could still depart in the coming days, with Saudi Pro League champions Al-Ittihad challenging Galatasaray in Turkey for the 21-year-old’s signature.
Talbi only joined Sunderland last summer, arriving from Club Brugge in Belgium for a £20.5m fee. He has ebbed and flowed in the Premier League, and it’s becoming clear that his future may lie away from Tyneside. After all, Le Bris has already excluded him from the Black Cats’ Europa League squad for the season.
Discussing the potential move, Le Bris acknowledged Talbi’s talent and potential, but questioned whether it is “the right pathway” for him at the Stadium of Light.
Last season, the Morocco international played 28 times in the Premier League, starting 16 games. He scored four goals, yet failed to create a single big chance and won only one duel per game besides.
Perhaps cashing in might be the right call, albeit it will leave Le Bris and his outfit a little lighter. With that in mind, the French tactician might need to demonstrate his resourcefulness over the coming weeks and months.
Sunderland already have an in-house Talbi upgrade
Talbi is talented, but talent isn’t enough, and there’s a sense that Le Bris has never quite been sold by his profile in totality, willing to part ways rather than keep him around and offer him opportunities to impress over the coming campaign.
Perhaps the fact that Chris Rigg continues to go from strength to strength has eased the process for the manager. Rigg, a versatile and hard-working attacker, is Sunderland’s darling, homegrown and ever-more-important in Le Bris’ system, starting 11 top-flight games last term – including a run of five straight through March and April.
Hailed as a “special talent” by Sky Sports reporter Dougie Critchley, Rigg is still only 19 years old, yet he has already scored eight goals and assisted two more for the seniors.
Highly adaptable and a skilled technician, Rigg covered a lot of ground in the Premier League last season, inside the top quarter of players for distance covered per 90. He also completed 36.4% of his crosses, putting him in the top bracket for that metric.
Some questioned whether Rigg would manage to transition from Championship life to the unrelenting intensity of the Premier League, but he has done just that. Once remarked by journalist James Copley for being “level with [Gareth] Bale” in scoring five Championship goals before his 18th birthday, he made a positive impression in the Premier League last year, bagging one spectacular strike.
Rigg is still learning the craft, but his versatility and capacity to impress at this fledgling phase of his career makes it clear to see why Le Bris is such a big fan. The fact that he played on the right for a stint last season, impressing, suggests that we might see him out there over the coming months.
|
Chris Rigg for Sunderland by Position |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Position |
Apps |
Goals + Assists |
|
Central midfield |
29 |
4 + 0 |
|
Attacking midfield |
28 |
1 + 3 |
|
Right winger |
22 |
3 + 1 |
|
Defensive midfield |
10 |
1 + 0 |
|
Left winger |
3 |
1 + 1 |
|
Centre-forward |
1 |
0 + 0 |
Do Sunderland have the next Bale on their hands? Perhaps not, but Rigg is undoubtedly one of the most exciting Mackems prospects in many years, and if there is a chance to keep building with him at the core of the project, Le Bris must pounce on that opportunity.
Two games into the season and Sunderland have been something of a mixed bag. If Talbi is going to depart, Le Bris and co need to ensure that they know what they are doing.
His departure will lighten the Black Cats squad, but perhaps it will prove a fantastic opportunity for a rising prospect such as Rigg to stand up and grow into the mainstay he has long been touted to become.
