Sunderland battling English clubs to sign £1.2m star

Sunderland now know who they are going to face of their opening set of Premier League fixtures.

It is going to have abruptly turn out to be very actual for these with connections to the Black Cats when trying on the checklist of golf equipment Regis Le Bris’ males will quickly face, with August throwing up fixtures in opposition to West Ham United, Burnley, and Brentford to kick off their daunting top-flight survival mission.

Le Bris will hope his newly promoted facet can steadily regulate to their intimidating degree, with loads of signings nonetheless wanted to assist maintain their heads above water.

Sunderland have already had success on this division when securing the everlasting providers of Enzo Le Price, however one other midfield expertise may quickly be part of the ranks to hyperlink up with the skilful Frenchman.

Sunderland monitoring cut price midfielder

As per a report by OnTheMinute, Sunderland are actually monitoring the scenario of Clermont Foot midfielder Habib Keita.

The report states that Keita has turn out to be a a lot sought-after expertise after impressing in Ligue 2, with QPR, Stoke Metropolis and Crystal Palace all mentioned to be maintaining tabs on the promising 23-year-old.

Valued at simply £1.2m by way of Transfermarkt, this might go down as one other steal utilising the French market, very similar to when Le Price joined the constructing initially on mortgage.

How Keita could be Le Bris’ subsequent Le Price

With Jobe Bellingham additionally now gone, which has left a substantial gap within the midfield areas, this might be a shrewd pick-up as Sunderland try and acclimatise again to the challenges of the Premier League.

In any case, Le Bris has presumably had the Malian on his radar for fairly a while now, with the ex-Lorient boss little doubt a eager fan of the 23-year-old when nonetheless located within the managerial dug-outs of his native France.

Very like Le Price at Le Bris’ ex-employers, Keita would have been seen as an thrilling expertise when rising by the Lyon ranks as a teenager.

However, similarly to the now Sunderland quantity 28, his profession hasn’t been with out its obstacles, ensuing within the midfielder transferring out to Belgium after exiting the Groupama Stadium, earlier than returning to France reinvigorated with Clermont Foot.

Final season, whilst his Ligue 2 employers struggled in sixteenth place within the league standings, Keita nonetheless managed to come back away from the marketing campaign with a objective and 4 assists to his identify, which means he may nicely thrive in one other basement battle to comply with with Sunderland.

The desk above actually reinforces the concept that Keita may go on to be a good higher expertise underneath Le Bris’ wing, like Le Price, with the midfield duo notching up comparable numbers when evaluating their statistics from final season, as seen of their comparable passing numbers.

However, away from their potential to carve out a gap, the midfield pairing additionally excel as energetic our bodies, with a excessive quantity of duels gained, which can come in useful as video games turn out to be extra attritional and tensely fought within the Premier League.

Very like Le Price too, who can fortunately line up down the wings away from slotting in the course of the park, Keita can be able to being versatile with eight of his total profession appearances seeing him come into an XI as a quantity ten, alongside one other 4 clashes the place he is been deployed down the correct flank.

The fear will simply be if the Malian can immediately hit the bottom operating in his new terrain. However, if Le Price is something to go by, Keita may nicely be the following sensational seize from Le Bris’ homeland.