SAFC pre-season tour - day one update - video Dailymotion

Sunderland Echo

Phil Smith brings you the latest Sunderland AFC injury and transfer news from the pre-season tour of Spain

Transcript

00:00Hi everyone, Phil here speaking to you from Spain. I'm in Alicante where I'm covering

00:14Sunderland's pre-season tour. I'll be bringing you full coverage from the game against Nottingham

00:18Forest on Friday evening and against Al Dents on Sunday evening. I'll be doing your typical

00:24on the whistle videos after both of those games so keep your eye out on Twitter during

00:28the game after the game. I'll put my usual call out for questions and we'll discuss the

00:31game, who's impressed, what happened, any breaking news, all that kind of stuff. But

00:35what I also thought I'd do while I'm out here is I'd try and bring you a bit of insight

00:38as to what's going on and also just cover off some of the main news in some kind of

00:43daily update videos. So, a few things to talk about today. The big news which actually broke

00:48yesterday evening is that Dan Ballard's not here in Spain with the group. Ballard obviously

00:52one of the key players in this team really and someone who I think would have been absolute

00:57certainty to start on the opening day of the season against Cardiff. Ballard picked

01:01up an injury against South Shields in that opening friendly of the pre-season programme.

01:05He went to see a specialist with Sunderland hoping it wasn't that serious. It's not hugely

01:09serious but it's pretty serious and he ended up undergoing minor surgery. That means he'll

01:13be out for up to six weeks. Obviously we don't know exactly how long he'll be out for, that'll

01:17depend on his rehab, how quickly he can recover, all those sorts of things. But what we can

01:21say with some certainty is he's not going to play a part in the pre-season programme

01:24and that means he's not going to be fit, you would assume, to face Cardiff on the opening

01:28day of the season. Probably the three or four games after that. I think that brings a really

01:33interesting dynamic to what's going to happen in these two games over the weekend because

01:39although Ballard and 0-9 I think are pretty much inked in as the start and centre half

01:43partnership for the new season when Ballard's fit, there isn't a huge amount of depth there

01:47at the moment for a few reasons. Jenson Seale too impressed last season. He's out here in

01:52Spain but he's a long way off making a recovery yet. He's certainly not going to be fit to

01:55start the season. Nectar Triantis is also out here in Spain but he missed the friendlies

02:00at the weekend. He's got an injury as well. So I think what this basically means is there's

02:03a big opportunity here for Leo Yelder and Adge Ulise over these two friendlies over

02:09the weekend where I'd expect both of them to play centre half at some point. Now obviously

02:13we all know about Ulise's talent. We all know that he finished the season really well and

02:17that's a huge boost to something going forward. But he arrived at the club as a centre half

02:22primarily. He's ended up playing mostly at left back and he's done brilliantly well and

02:25I think most Southern fans would be really happy if Ulise had played at left back for

02:28much of the season. But of course you've got Denis Sirkin in who's also shown a huge amount

02:32of potential and is fit again which is a major boost. I wonder if Ulise has got an opportunity

02:38here with Ballard's injury to put his hand up to try and make that centre half spot his

02:42own. I think that's potentially a really exciting prospect for fans although it's a blow to

02:46lose Ballard to potentially get Ulise and Sirkin in the same team. Especially as Red

02:51East Labrice moves towards a very high press in style, that's going to demand a high line

02:56and that pace could be really vital that both of those bring. The other contender really

03:00is Leo Yelder as I mentioned. Yelder I think had an inconsistent start with Southern Korea

03:05but to be fair I think you would expect that given that A. he was in a team struggling

03:09for confidence, struggling for fluidity, struggling for form. He also made pretty clear when he

03:14arrived that he saw himself as a centre half first and foremost. Now he's not had a chance

03:17to show what he can do in that position at all. Big opportunity for him coming over the

03:22pre-season programme to really put himself in contention. Joe Anderson is also here.

03:27Joe Anderson who joined from Everton about 18 months ago but was on loan at Shrewsbury

03:30last season, had a decent season there. He'll be open to put his hand up. Though he did

03:34play left back in the opening friendlies which maybe suggests that he's not in contention

03:38at the moment for a start and berth in the Championship but we'll see how that develops.

03:42So that's a really interesting one to watch. Will someone feel that they need to go back

03:45into the transfer market or will they see the options in this camp and in these games

03:50that actually they've got enough to get through that first month, five week period and then

03:53be ready for when Ballard returns. The other big news really is transfers and actually

03:58at the moment mostly outgoing transfers. There's been a kind of flurry of headlines in recent

04:03days about the number of players who could or could not be leaving and actually a lot

04:08of the players who are here in camp have been linked with moves in recent days so the big

04:11one is Trey Hulme who's been linked with a number of clubs over the course of the summer.

04:15I think it's fair to say that given his defensive attributes, his age and how quickly he's progressed,

04:19there are loads of clubs tracking Trey Hulme. Now there had been reports that Galatasaray

04:24had submitted a bid for him. My understanding is that although there may be interest, the

04:28club aren't aware of it formally yet and there's certainly been no bid. Similarly Pierre Equa

04:33has been linked with a move to Udinese by Fabrizio Romano. My understanding is that's

04:37absolutely true. Sunderland are aware of interest from Udinese and Pierre Equa. There's

04:42definitely been contact. My understanding is at the moment the kind of fees that have

04:48been talked about or the kind of proposal that's been made is a long, long way from

04:51what Sunderland would consider a viable option and a viable bid. You've got to remember that

04:56Sunderland turned down some pretty significant bids for Pierre Equa last deadline day in

05:00the summer. Now he had a little bit of an inconsistent season I think last time out

05:03but it was his first full season in professional football. So I think that's something we're

05:07anticipating some ups and downs as he adjusted to playing sort of three times a week in the

05:11championship environment. So that's definitely one to watch. But I think the strong theme

05:15coming out of the camp and coming out of the club at the moment is, listen, we've proven

05:19over the last three or four windows that we won't just let players go for a pittance.

05:23We're not in the habit of selling players unless the bid's huge. We want to keep the

05:27core of this team together. So although at the moment it feels a little bit tense because

05:30there's so much discussion about players and there's so many reports of interest, at

05:34the moment there's actually been very, very few bids, formal bids, and some of them are

05:38pretty confident. The thing that they keep stressing is most of these players, in fact

05:42pretty much all these players who've been linked with moves away, Trey Hulme, Pierre

05:45Equa, Anthony Patterson, you name them, they're all under long-term contracts and the club

05:49are under no financial pressure to sell this window. So I feel really strongly that the

05:54team on the first day of the season is going to be a very familiar one, hopefully with

05:58some more additions, exciting additions, but I don't envisage any significant sales

06:03and that's certainly the message at the moment amid this flurry of reports. And one thing

06:06that I would mention as well is that some of them have already fought off pretty significant

06:09interest in Jobe Bellingham. If they were looking to sell a player this summer, they

06:13could already have done that. They could have made a huge profit from Crystal Palace or

06:16any of the other top-tier clubs tracking Jobe, but they've had a discussion, they've said

06:20they want to keep him, they want to be ambitious, and as it stands, he's very, very happy to

06:24this day and he said that he's kind of signed up for the season and excited about it. So

06:28I would take, obviously, there's no doubt with all the talent in the squad, there's

06:32going to be loads of interest and I think more bids will arrive at some stage, but I

06:36think generally the view is that the core of this team for the season is in place and

06:39that some of them are really keen to keep them all. There's obviously the Jack Clarke

06:43question, that's a slightly different one because of his contractual situation. He's

06:46got two years left and obviously if he's not going to sign a new deal, then there's always

06:51a chance that a big bid could force someone to sell rather than let him run his contract

06:55down. Having said that, one thing that's something that I feel very clear is that at the end

07:00of the day, if Clarke stays front of the air and someone gets promoted, the kind of financial

07:04reward that will bring far outstrips what they would make from a sale now. So even that

07:08isn't a foregone conclusion. So I think that's kind of been the big talking points the last

07:12few days and so far from the pre-season to it, but I think that my prediction, as I've

07:18said, would very much be that I think the core of the team will stay in place for the

07:22start of the season. If someone don't get promoted next year, then maybe we're having

07:26a different conversation. Maybe some of these players will be a bit more keen to step up

07:29and move on, but I don't envisage it at this stage. I'll be back in the next couple of

07:33days with hopefully a few more updates. I'll start looking ahead a little bit to the Nottingham

07:37Forest fixture, which is already happening, which obviously is happening on Friday and

07:42maybe we'll have a bit of preview and look at some team news for that. But I hope you've

07:44enjoyed this update. I hope it's been a little bit insightful. As I say, keep your eye out

07:48for all of our coverage from the matches. Keep an eye out on my Twitter and the Echo

07:51Twitter on Friday and Sunday because I'll be putting a call out for your usual On The

07:55Whistle questions. So if you're watching the game and you've got a question, or if you're

07:58not watching the game, you've got some questions, fire them in then. Cheers for watching.

SAFC pre-season tour - day one update

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