Sunderland fans will be eagerly awaiting the Championship getting back underway, as the international break is now over, and the weekend looms large on the horizon.
The Black Cats away faithful face a lengthy journey to Plymouth Argyle, hopeful that their side can make it an incredible five league victories on the bounce in Devon.
New Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris, who has already made quite the impression on supporters in Wearside, will no doubt pick 17-year-old sensation Chris Rigg for this test against Wayne Rooney’s Pilgrims, who is now catching the eye of many luxurious suitors.
He could potentially even go for more than what Sunderland got for Jack Clarke, with Ipswich Town paying around £15m to win the former Tottenham Hotspur man’s services this summer, after he had reinvented himself at the Stadium of Light.
Rigg’s future at Sunderland
It’s still early days in the fledging career of Rigg, but much like Jobe Bellingham in the Sunderland ranks, the top young starlets at Le Bris’ disposal are already being eyed up by some mammoth clubs.
According to GIVEMESPORT, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City are all interested in the services of Rigg moving forward, having been intently scouting the teenager in action.
He has also been linked with a major switch to Spanish titans Real Madrid, further reinforcing how high the teenager’s ceiling already is to have Carlo Ancelotti’s giants sniffing around.
The report also added fuel to the fire by stating that Rigg’s departure down the line would give the Championship side a ‘seismic amount’ to play with in the transfer kitty, but the homegrown Black Cats ace is perfectly fine with sticking it out at his current location for the time being, especially as Sunderland now sit pretty at the top of the division.
Coming on leaps and bounds since being Sunderland’s youngest-ever league goalscorer last September, he might well leave one day for way more than Clarke’s £15m, particularly considering that the report states that he’s even deemed a bigger talent than compatriot, Adam Wharton, who left second tier side Blackburn Rovers to join Crystal Palace on a £22m deal in January.
Throw into the mix that the Black Cats were also demanding around £20m for Rigg’s teammate Anthony Patterson this summer, and it’s easy to see why the teenager could soon eclipse Clarke’s recent transfer fee.
Rigg’s season so far
Given chances here and there last campaign under the likes of interim head coach Mike Dodds, Le Bris has made Rigg front and centre of his new-look Black Cats side, with the Sunderland number 11 present in all four of his side’s league wins to date.
He has also started three of those contests, as Rigg – and the rest of his teammates – continue to look unshackled and free under the new managerial methods of the ex-Lorient boss.
Rising first team values this season in Sunderland first team | ||
|---|---|---|
Player | Value end of last season | Value now |
Anthony Patterson | £10.8m | £11.3m |
Daniel Ballard | £4.4m | £6.4m |
Dan Neil | £4.5m | £7m |
Jobe Bellingham | £6.5m | £10.4m |
Trai Hume | £4.8m | £7.9m |
Sourced by Football Transfers | ||
Looking at the table above, the likes of Jobe Bellingham and Trai Hume in the Black Cats first team are very much benefitting from the freshness of the early Le Bris regime, with 18-year-old Bellingham’s value now all the up at £10.4m.
According to Transfermarkt, Rigg’s value only comes in at a meagre £253k – when looking towards the back-end of Sunderland’s topsy-turvy 23/24 campaign – with his increase in value to come no doubt the most dramatic on the list.
Winning four duels as a lively presence in his side’s 3-1 win away at Portsmouth before the international break intervened, Rigg – who was labelled as “wonderful” by former Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray last year – has also shown an eye for goal across his team’s four league wins to date, with three shots registered against Sheffield Wednesday last month.
He will only get better under Le Bris and looks likely to be Sunderland’s next big sale, especially if Ancelotti’s Whites come knocking with an absurd offer down the line.
