Five Right-Wingers Sunderland Should Target This Summer
· Yahoo Sports
During the World Cup I’ve been taking a look at potential signings from a statistical scope. Defensive midfield and left-back have been covered, and now it’s time to take a look at the right wing. Last summer we brought in Chemsdine Talbi and Bertrand Traoré, with the addition of Jocelin Ta Bi in January.
So why is this an area Sunderland need to look at? Well, in the case of Traoré, his contract was not renewed in early June. Talbi, although originally profiled as a right winger, has seemingly preferred life on the left, both for Sunderland and Morocco.
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Ta Bi, signed from the Israeli First Division, is just 20 years old. The Ivorian is certainly promising, recently scoring four goals for Côte d’Ivoire’s Under-23 side in this summer’s Maurice Revello Tournament. He does, however, appear rather lightweight, and adapting to the physicality of the Premier League will take time as he continues to develop.
Simon Adingra will certainly need to impress on his return to win back favour with Régis Le Bris. Assuming he departs this summer, this means we have Nilson Angulo, Chemsdine Talbi and even Enzo Le Fée on the left. Ta Bi is really our only out-and-out option on the right, although Chris Rigg has been deployed there on occasion.
When considering a right-wing option for Sunderland, there is an elephant in the room that needs to be addressed. Amad Diallo really became the player we know today at the Stadium of Light. A previous loan at Rangers may have led Manchester United fans to believe he was simply another name to add to the list of expensive flops from a pre-INEOS era. Thirteen goals for Tony Mowbray’s side made us all fall in love with a loan player.
The i Paper’s Northern Football Correspondent, Mark Douglas, reported in May that, should an opportunity ever arise, Sunderland would certainly consider facilitating a return to Wearside for the Ivorian. I don’t wish to break hearts here, but Sunderland fans’ favourite journalist Fabrizio Romano recently reported that Manchester United will not be presenting that opportunity this summer.
🚨🇨🇮 Manchester United consider Amad Diallo not for sale this summer.
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 29, 2026
Despite approaches and interest the Ivorian winger won’t leave as #MUFC see Amad as key player. pic.twitter.com/2GpcM6LuZy
Still only 23 and under contract until June 2030, you’d most likely have to pay well in excess of £60 million to prise Diallo away from Manchester. It is still unclear how large a transfer budget Florent Ghisolfi will be given this summer but, regardless, that would almost certainly consume a significant proportion of it. So it appears to be a non-starter.
So, if we’re looking to recruit on the right flank, what kind of metrics would we be looking for? Well, Sunderland need to add more goals to the side. While perhaps an obvious statement, the lads ranked 17th in the league for goals last season, with around 14% of those goals coming from wingers – excluding Le Fée, Rigg and Diarra, who have all been deployed wide.
The numbers don’t lie, and we require a greater contribution from our wide areas. This becomes even more apparent when you consider the number of players Brobbey attracts with his hold-up play.
Beyond this, it’s probably worthwhile looking at some of the division’s top wingers to assess what else we’re looking for beyond shooting metrics. Let’s take a look at the seasons of Bukayo Saka, Antoine Semenyo, Jarrod Bowen and Amad.
Before taking a deeper look, on the surface we would do very well to find someone with as rounded a profile as Bukayo Saka. Regardless, all of the aforementioned players complete over one successful dribble per game, with a success rate above 45%. Only Igor Thiago and Erling Haaland scored more goals than Semenyo last year, and this is reflected in him taking around 2.2 shots per game and generating around 0.3 non-penalty xG.
Saka, Diallo and Bowen appear to be more creative facilitators for their sides, all creating more than one chance per game while averaging over 0.5 successful crosses. Amad and Bowen played in more transitional sides last year, in a style more similar to our own than that of Arsenal or Manchester City. Even so, they’re taking over four touches in the opposition box per 90 minutes and winning around one foul per game.
So, in summary, an ideal target would be someone who is taking over one and a half shots per game, averaging more than four touches in the opposition penalty area and dribbling with a success rate above 40%. Producing over one chance per game, with a cross success rate of around 20%, would also give us a player similar to Amad.
There are other factors to take into account. Given Ta Bi’s age, someone approaching their peak would provide valuable experience while allowing the Ivorian space to develop. Given UEFA’s rules on home-grown players, that could also prove valuable following the departures of Dan Neil, Harrison Jones and Zak Johnson. With other departures imminent, we will need to ensure we remain compliant with our squad makeup.
I’ll be providing five options we could pursue on the right – two who would qualify as home-grown and three who would not. For reference, I’ll also be ordering these moves in terms of ambition, so bear with me and read on. I started writing this before the links to Matías Soulé gathered momentum, but should that move fail to progress, here are some alternatives.
David Brooks (AFC Bournemouth)
The story of David Brooks is incredible, really. In October 2021 he was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer, leading to an 18-month hiatus from football while he recovered. In March 2023 he returned to action and has been a reliable squad player for Bournemouth ever since.
Now, make no mistake, this would be a signing that wouldn’t set the world alight. However, having come through both Manchester City’s and Sheffield United’s academies before joining Bournemouth, he would help meet the home-grown quotas needed within our squad.
Bournemouth have a wealth of attacking options to choose from. With Justin Kluivert, Ben Doak, Rayan Cherki and Marcus Tavernier all capable of operating across the three positions behind the striker, Brooks has fallen down the pecking order somewhat. He will turn 29 this month, and this could be the right time for the Welsh international to move on from the south coast.
Brooks was given only 1,199 minutes of football last season, with just 13 of his 31 appearances coming as starts. For reference, Chemsdine Talbi played over 350 minutes more, despite missing one fewer game through injury than the Welshman and a further six matches due to AFCON. Given our lack of depth on the right, Brooks may appreciate the opportunity for more regular game time.
With all that being said, he still contributed just one fewer goal involvement than the Moroccan in that limited game time, with one goal and three assists for the Cherries. When analysing Brooks, we should take those numbers with a pinch of salt given the relatively small sample size. Despite that, his underlying numbers are very promising.
Averaging 3.6 shots per game and generating around 0.44 xG per 90 minutes, he is showing signs of being highly proficient at testing opposition goalkeepers with high-quality chances. His passing and dribbling numbers also give us an indication of his playing style.
Averaging 1.28 successful dribbles per game, of all the players we’ve mentioned so far only Talbi completes fewer, while only Bowen has a lower dribble success rate. Let’s take a look at his passing and chance-creation numbers.
MetricPer 90 Minute Percentile RankingExpected Assists (xA)90.1Chances Created81.7Big Chances Created94.7Accurate Passes57.3Accurate Long Balls61.1Albeit in a very limited time on the field, his low dribbling and proficient chance creation numbers suggest he is more likely to find openings through a defence with a select number of progressive passes (3.1 per 90) as opposed to taking on his full back. Almost all of his Premier League goals have been from inside or just outside the 6 yard area. To me this is an unreliably unappreciated ability, with Brobbey occupying central defenders.
Contracted until 2029, I’d test the waters at between £10-15 million.
Harvey Elliott (Liverpool)
Cast your mind back to the summer of 2025. You’re fresh off a Wembley victory, Oasis are back and the Lionesses have won a second consecutive European Championship. Harvey Elliott has enjoyed a great summer, being named Player of the Tournament as England won the Under-21 European Championship.
What a difference a year makes.
Now 23, he was given only 110 minutes for Aston Villa in a disastrously organised loan deal for all parties involved. When pre-season begins on Merseyside, he will be greeted by his third Liverpool manager in Andoni Iraola.
Mohamed Salah’s departure could indicate a pathway to first-team football at Anfield but, after reportedly missing out on Yan Diomandé, who instead opted for Paris Saint-Germain, it appears the Reds are once again prepared to spend heavily on their wide areas.
Elliott’s position isn’t strictly that of a winger. Instead, much like Enzo Le Fée on the left, he tends to occupy more central spaces after cutting in from the right flank. This is perhaps why his move to Villa did not work, given Unai Emery’s clearly defined roles within his system. For Sunderland, I’d actually see this as a positive, providing both an option on the right and cover for Le Fée centrally alongside Habib Diarra.
During his one season under Arne Slot, he was afforded only 360 league minutes, with just two starts. Given his lack of recent playing time, we’ll have to go back to the 2023 – 24 season to assess the 23-year-old, when he made 34 appearances.
His numbers from that campaign are stellar and remind me of the period when there was a significant push for him to start more games for Liverpool. Elliott ranked in the top 10% of comparable Premier League players for shots, shots on target, expected assists and chances created.
This is exactly the profile Sunderland are lacking in the wide areas. The Netherlands’ performances at this summer’s World Cup have shown that, with high-quality service, Brobbey will thrive even further. Elliott’s metrics in possession are also interesting. Ranking in the top 6% for successful crosses and the top 26% for pass completion (including long balls), his delivery and passing are clearly at a very high level.
He’s not naturally pacy and, at 5ft 7in, lacks some of the physical attributes of other wide players. That perhaps explains why both the volume and success rate of his dribbles are comparatively low when set against his passing metrics. He’s clearly technically adept enough on the ball to minimise the number of times he loses possession.
One thing I particularly appreciate about Elliott is that, having played under Jürgen Klopp and trained under Unai Emery, he’s been taught how to press effectively. That would explain why he ranks highly for possession won in the final third and ball recoveries, despite playing for a side that finished third and therefore naturally spent less time defending.
Elliott is now at a key crossroads in his career. Regardless of his next move, regular playing time is essential. I’m not sure defining himself positionally is necessary, but I firmly believe he could be a valuable asset to Sunderland on the right.
His loan at Aston Villa included a £35 million obligation to buy. Having not made the required number of appearances to trigger that clause, that valuation has inevitably dropped. I believe a fee somewhere between £20 – 25 million could be enough to tempt Liverpool into doing business.
Johan Bakayoko (RB Leibzig)
Sometimes things just don’t work out the way you’d want them to. I firmly believed Dylan McGeouch would be the future of our midfield for a number of years, and look how that worked out. I’m sure when Johan Bakayoko was contacted by Red Bull’s Head of Global Soccer, Jürgen Klopp, he thought he was about to break into the elite of Europe’s top wingers. As of today, he is further away from being recognised as that calibre of player than he was before his €18 million move from PSV Eindhoven last summer.
Honestly, I’d forgotten the 23-year-old had made this move. Not that I’m an encyclopaedia, but it’s easy to see why. The emergence of Yan Diomandé, coupled with ill-timed injuries, has seen Bakayoko log fewer than 100 minutes in 2026. Injuries haven’t helped, but the loan signing of Brajan Gruda saw the Belgian become Leipzig’s third-choice option on the right.
Sounds great, right? A player who has had almost no game time this year, has fallen into an emergency role and missed six games through injury last season. Furthermore, with Diomandé’s seemingly imminent exit, why would Bakayoko join Sunderland?
I’ll tackle the last question first. Brajan Gruda joined Leipzig in January on loan from Brighton. In that time, he played only 18 fewer minutes than Bakayoko and appears set to complete a permanent move to the Red Bull Arena this summer.
As for justifying the player’s quality, we really need to disregard the last 12 months. PSV Eindhoven won each of their final five league games to pip Ajax to the Eredivisie title by a single point. Nine goals and one assist from the Belgian, along with a Player of the Match performance against Liverpool in Europe, were enough to attract the Red Bull Group.
In that season alone, he ranked among the top 10 players in the Netherlands for successful dribbles per 90, shots on target per 90 and shots per 90. He won’t hesitate to take on his full-back and will often look for a shot before creating a chance for others. You can see that as selfish, or you can see it as aggressive.
We also have the benefit of comparing his numbers against Europe’s elite in the Champions League that season. Only 14 players attempted more dribbles than him, a list that included Lamine Yamal, Vinícius Júnior, Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise and Bradley Barcola. In that competition he also showed a willingness to defend, ranking in the top quarter of comparable players for tackles. With around 5.5 touches in the opposition box per 90, he fits the profile of the Premier League wingers we assessed earlier.
Back in the Dutch league, he ranked in the top percentile for both dribble volume and successful dribbles. He has the ability to draw defenders towards him before using that space to make short, effective passes. That is reflected in him producing 0.8 key passes per 90 while averaging only 0.6 crosses into the box.
Why do I like this move? It’s largely theoretical. Last year we played a very transitional style, with Brobbey occupying centre-backs through his physicality. In theory, Bakayoko’s pace and dribbling leave an opposition defence with two options. The first is to stay honest, keep the left-back deep and sacrifice attacking threat. The second is to ask your centre-backs to split their attention between wrestling with Brobbey and stopping Bakayoko from driving past them.
Fiorentina have reportedly been linked with him for around £17 million. He hasn’t kicked on as expected and is low on both game time and confidence, but for a player who was so highly rated to cost roughly the same as Talbi did for us last year, that’s a gamble I’d be more than happy to take.
Ibrahim Mbaye (Paris Saint Germain)
In my article on potential left-back signings I was very nervous about mentioning Fran García, who at the time was contracted to Real Madrid. Having since moved to Real Betis for a reported €4 million, I don’t feel overly concerned about recommending a player from the current European champions.
With 11 months left on his contract, any potential transfer fee should not be excessively inflated. The departures of Lee Kang-in and Gonçalo Ramos have depleted the Parisians’ forward depth, but the seemingly imminent arrivals of Yan Diomandé and Maghnes Akliouche should help replenish it.
So, for an 18-year-old, where do you expect to find minutes within a forward line that already boasts Ousmane Dembélé, Désiré Doué, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Bradley Barcola?
You may scoff, but in recent times players have made the move between Paris and Sunderland with varying degrees of success. I’d suggest we rely more on the testimony of Nordi Mukiele than that of Edouard Michut or Timothée Pembélé.
Luis Enrique has clearly rated the Senegalese winger, as he’s made 43 appearances over the last two seasons in Paris. Enrique was very intelligent with his squad rotation last year. Knowing his second-string side was more than capable of winning the domestic title, he focused the game time of his key players on Europe.
For reference, the two departures I have already mentioned received more league minutes than the Ballon d’Or winner last season. Even so, Dembélé still accumulated more than 600 additional Ligue 1 minutes than Mbaye.
You do have to caveat Mbaye’s numbers given the limited amount of football he has played, and the fact he started fewer than half of his appearances, often against tired defences.
His possession numbers are what really stand out. His passing metrics are exceptionally strong, particularly in small, compressed spaces. As an explosive runner, his dribble volume is very high, while his relatively modest success rate should improve with experience and development.
Despite playing for the dominant side in his league, his desire to win possession high up the pitch is really promising. A combined 0.5 xG + xA per 90 minutes is outstanding, but the question remains whether that level of production would scale over a larger sample of minutes.
He is Senegalese, and another absence during AFCON wouldn’t help us. There are also understandable concerns regarding young players leaving elite clubs. For every Cole Palmer there is a Mathys Tel, and you are taking a significant gamble.
Tottenham have been linked, but their current recruitment strategy appears to revolve around spending heavily on proven Premier League talent. Manchester United have also been linked, but while they are reportedly looking for a more experienced back-up striker, would Mbaye really trade his current position for becoming third choice behind Bryan Mbeumo and Amad?
I’m sure this wouldn’t be the glamorous move the 18-year-old envisages. But, geography aside, we are offering European football and a clear pathway to first-team minutes. On paper, it makes plenty of sense.
£30 million probably gets it done. Why not?
Brahim Díaz (Real Madrid)
I said I’d get progressively more punchy.
An (eventual) AFCON champion, league winner in both Spain and England, and holder of a Champions League winner’s medal, Brahim Díaz has a well-stocked trophy cabinet. Aside from this year’s AFCON, you could argue he’s never really been the figurehead of the sides he’s played for.
Now 26, he certainly sits at a crossroads in his career. An impending José Mourinho shake-up is coming to Madrid. Florentino Pérez has seemingly based his presidential campaign on some kind of Royal Rumble-style reveal of a €150 million signing, whether that be Michael Olise, Erling Haaland or Rey Mysterio.
As it stands, Díaz’s competition on the right consists of Rodrygo, Franco Mastantuono and Arda Güler.
A player of Díaz’s quality could certainly do with more than 13 starts. Given Güler can also play as a No. 10, and Rodrygo suffered a torn ACL in March, you could argue his main competition would be Mastantuono – a battle Díaz may well fancy winning.
To see how the Moroccan measures up against similar players in England, let’s compare him with a couple of rotational wide players from ball-dominant Premier League sides – Gabriel Martinelli and Savinho. I’ll also include Cole Palmer, who, like Díaz, is capable of operating both centrally and from the right.
Díaz profiles far more as a creative winger than an inside forward. He’s generating more than double the number of chances created by the Premier League players we’re using for comparison. His numbers really stand out when you look at how he facilitates opportunities for others rather than himself. He’s not particularly quick, but his technical quality allows him to complete more than half of the dribbles he attempts while winning around 2.5 fouls per game.
Given our threat from set-pieces through Ballard, Mukiele and Alderete, to name just three, that is an incredible attacking asset. The Madridista appears somewhat shot-averse, but operating from wide areas with around 40% crossing accuracy provides a consistent and effective pipeline for creating high xG chances.
I’d be wary of a wing partnership involving both Le Fée and Díaz, as I fear they would naturally drift into central areas, limiting our attacking width. However, if one of them were to operate centrally, I believe the combination could dovetail beautifully.
Think Roberts and Amad under Mowbray.
Most recently linked with Roma for around €35 – 45 million, Díaz appears likely to replace the Sunderland-linked Matías Soulé.
I say let’s cut out the middle man.