One year ago, he was the new darling of the terraces; an emerging starlet who was striding through Championship games with the composure of a veteran, showing his class with regularity and scoring casual backheeled winners against Middlesbrough like he was taking part in a kickabout in the park.
Fast forward twelve months, and Chris Rigg finds himself in an interesting position at Sunderland as our return to the Premier League continues to show plenty of promise and a revamped Lads’ team — the result
of some grade A summer transfer business — makes a good early impression on the top flight.
The England U19 international was recently rewarded for his progress with a new deal at the Stadium of Light, but such is his obvious passion for the game and desire to participate as much as he can, it’s probably a fair bet that won’t be satisfied with sitting on the bench, making cameo appearances and little more. That’s exactly the kind of attitude you want to see from a youngster and even if his impact thus far has been minimal, it’s not entirely unexpected.
Following a meteoric rise to prominence and some mature performances during our disappointing 2023/2024 campaign, Rigg’s 2024/2025 season was the archetypical ‘campaign of two halves’.
Spoken very highly of by Régis Le Bris following his appointment and often utterly brilliant during the early months of the campaign, it felt as though he was gradually being overplayed as we hit the hectic Christmas schedule, and an injury suffered against Blackburn Rovers seemed to check his progress.
When he returned to the team, he worked incredibly hard and was by no means poor, but there did seem to be a lack of creative spark — perhaps understandably, as we often didn’t look quite as fluent as a team as we might’ve done — and that game-changing brilliance wasn’t seen as often.
Nevertheless, Rigg earned the status of a promotion winner at season’s end, and with a new deal in his back pocket and top flight football on the menu, I’m eager to see how he rises to the challenge.
The aforementioned summer recruitment drive shifted the goalposts on Wearside and Rigg now finds himself surrounded by an array of talented players from across the footballing spectrum, many of whom can boast senior international experience and domestic and continental top flight pedigree.
That’s no bad thing as we continue to develop our squad depth, and it goes without saying that Le Bris and his coaches will have a carefully constructed plan for Rigg’s development this season, no injury concerns permitting, of course.
Similar to Dan Neil, it’s probably safe to say that Rigg’s learned an awful lot during our first three league games; namely about the speed of thought and foot as well as the level of physicality that’s needed to make the grade as an elite top flight talent.
Time and space simply isn’t in plentiful supply in this league. More often than not, you have to see the pass in one second and make it the next, and dawdling on the ball can often be lethal as the opposition swarm around you, attempt to win the ball and seek to launch an attack of their own.
In many ways, Rigg is the classic ‘street footballer’; a freewheeling talent who can make difficult things look ridiculously easy, but those instincts will have to be refined and polished if he wants to continue to progress.
It’s by no means a matter of stifling what he does best — instead, it’s a matter of developing his all-round game smoothing off the rough edges and ensuring the distractions are kept to a minimum, which is easier said than done in the modern footballing era, but easily achievable given the standards being set by our coaching team.
Another question concerns Rigg’s best position, which is something on which I don’t think there’s a consensus.
Does he have the potential to be a top flight winger? That’s debatable for me, and at the moment, he’s some way off the level required to make the cut as a Premier League number ten. In time, that’ll almost certainly be cleared up, but managing Rigg carefully in all departments will be paramount and our squad depth should make that easier.
Rigg has the potential to go a long way in the game and although he might not see as much game time during 2025/2026 as we might like, seeing the bigger picture is vital and I trust those making the decisions to ensure that he continues to develop both as a young man and a footballer, as Tony Mowbray, who gave Rigg his Sunderland debut, once said.
