How former Sunderland player Bali Mumba has fared at Plymouth Argyle

Transcript

00:00 When you mentioned Barley Mumba, they're a player that Sunderland fans will know well,

00:03 who came through the ranks at Sunderland, but they sold him really before he...

00:08 He did have a few games for the first team, but wasn't kind of playing regularly. He went to

00:12 Norwich, then he had the loan spell at Plymouth and then they signed him permanently in the summer.

00:16 So how's he done? I was just looking at where he's been playing because at Sunderland mostly

00:20 he was a centre midfielder. Looks like he's moved more out to the wing at Plymouth.

00:24 Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, he's had quite an interesting journey, Joe, and I think

00:30 the best way I can tell you what he's like down at Argyle was that when he joined Argyle from

00:35 Norwich in the summer, he was the club's first ever million pound signing. Now for bigger clubs

00:41 and clubs with more resources, a million pound signing these days isn't that big a deal, I

00:46 suppose. But for Plymouth Argyle, that was a big statement of one, of their ambition coming up into

00:51 the Championship, but two, also showed you how much they rated him from his loan spell with Argyle

00:57 last year. Last term he played quite often as a wing back. They would play with three central

01:02 defenders and then two wing backs and Barley was either left or right back, a left wing back. So

01:07 this season when they've gone to the 4-3-3 formation that I talked about earlier,

01:12 he's normally been used wide on the left as one of three up front. Seems quite a big change in

01:19 position, doesn't it? But I think Barley's strengths are his speed, his directness,

01:26 you know, taking people on and perhaps defensively as a wing back or even as a full back,

01:31 that isn't the strength of his game, the defensive side. So I think playing him up on the left,

01:37 lots of pace, directness, crosses into the box. He's had a couple of goals, a couple of assists.

01:43 Yeah, he's a big fan favourite down at Home Park.