Chelsea seem to have hit the ground running in our two preseason friendlies, showing midseason form despite just one week of training coming off of three weeks of post-Club World Cup holidays.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case for young Marc Guiu, who was left completely out of Sunderland’s matchday squad in their friendly against Real Sociedad on Sunday. (He was only presented to the crowd, despite signing 3-4 days prior.) Sunderland would go on to lose 3-0, and afterwards, head coach Regis
Le Bris explained away the Chelsea loanee’s absence as a fitness and adaptation issue.
“Signings like [Guiu and Arthur Masuaku] will help the squad, even if they started later [but] we’ll have to be patient with them, to build their foundations for the season.”
-Regis Le Bris; source: Metro
And it sounds like it may take more than a couple weeks to satisfy Le Bris.
“We’ll see [if they’ll be involved this weekend]. Every day we will make an assessment of their level and see how far we can push them through the training sessions. Lift the intensity, the contact. If they react well, they can then join the squad. If they don’t react well, we wait one day, two day and assess again. So we will see for next week.”
-Regis Le Bris; source: Northern Echo
While Chelsea do have a penalty clause in the loan contract if Guiu doesn’t meet a certain threshold of appearances and minutes, it would behoove all involved if we didn’t have to collect on that.
