During the summer, Chemsdine Talbi signed from Club Brugge for a reported fee of around £20 million, including add-ons.
I think it’s fair to say that many supporters initially viewed him as a relatively low-profile signing who was brought in as a prospect for the future; an early starter only because we had nobody else, and it appears as though elements of the support are already starting to doubt him.
There’s been widespread (and justified) angst about our lack of new wingers. On deadline day, we
signed Bertrand Traoré but lost Patrick Roberts, and most fans seem to believe — with some reservations — that this was a positive swap, without acknowledging what we already have in the building.
Last season, Talbi played forty four games as first choice in the top league in Belgium, and also appeared in eleven Champions League games, scoring seven goals and contributing five assists in total. As supporters, I think we forget how far we’ve come. Admittedly, the Belgian Pro League ranks as the eighth best in Europe, but that isn’t a bad record by anyone’s standards.
Talbi is only twenty years old and to be fair to him, he’s left Belgium, had to embed with a new set of teammates and learn how his new team plays. He’s used to playing in front of crowds of 20,000 or so, but roughly six weeks after arriving, he was starting in the top league in world football in front of 46,000 — and got an assist.
In his second game, he missed a chance by inches that perhaps he should’ve scored, but it was a chance he created. In his third game, he looked good in the first half before fading a little in the second, but is that a bad start?
It’s true that Noah Sadiki is a similar age and comes from the same background, but he (quite rightly) gets lots of credit. The attention he receives is partly due to his all-action style but also because of his high-profile position in midfield. Wingers are generally less involved and much of the hard work they do when tracking back goes unnoticed.
Thinking back, Jack Clarke didn’t set the world alight for some time after his arrival. It may be heresy to some, but even Amad didn’t look particularly special in his first couple of games — and look where he ended up. Talbi has had a better start than both, will only get better, and I suggest that maybe he should be getting more credit.
From what I’ve seen so far, Talbi is more of a traditional winger rather than one who cuts inside like Clarke. On Saturday, in the first half against Brentford, he put two humdinger crosses into the box but on both occasions, the box was packed and the cross went straight through.
If we had Erling Haaland playing up front, it would’ve been “Thank you very much, that’s two-nil”, but we don’t. We play a different style and perhaps the coaches need a little more time to fit Talbi into their system, and I’m sure that he’ll learn and be a bigger player for us as a result.
Yes, he doesn’t yet seem to be able to consistently last for the full ninety minutes, but that’ll come with time.
I for one will enjoy watching how Talbi develops during the season. If the worst happens (and I’m increasingly confident that it won’t) and he moves on, I think we can expect a tidy profit. More likely, we can look forward to him helping us re-establish Sunderland in the Premier League in the years to come.
