Hope he gets a decent amount of game time tonight. I think we need to use him more. Sunderland: Michael Beale outlines Chris Rigg plans 1 hr ago SUNDERLAND AFC FOOTBALL SPORT By Dominic Shaw@DomShawEchoSport Reporter SUNDERLAND'S plan for Chris Rigg a week ago made complete sense - only for it to frustratingly backfire. The youngster was absent from the matchday squad for the game at Ipswich last Saturday with the FA Youth Cup fourth round tie at Gillingham - that was set to take place three days later - in mind. "Riggy was due to play in the Youth Cup game which was a seven-hour drive, so we decided not to take him to Ipswich if we weren't going to start him in the game, because otherwise he'd have spent the best part of 25-30 hours on a coach in the last week," explained Beale. "Then that game gets called off and it's replayed next week." Sunderland's youngsters will now instead head for Priestfield next Tuesday, January 23, with a home game against Swindon Town up for grabs in the fifth round after the Robins stunned Manchester United this week - but before then comes tonight's first team game against Hull City and Rigg will hope to be involved. Rigg is no normal 16-year-old. He's a Sunderland record breaker and has already featured six times in the Championship this season, scoring his first goal for the club in the win over Southampton. But he's yet to feature under Beale and has only twice been named on the bench since returning from the World Cup with England's Under-17s at the end of last year. That's no cause for concern, says Beale, who has been blown away by the youngster in training but is keen to carefully manage the midfielder. "He's a 16-year-old boy and it's important he plays in those (youth) games as well and we give him a game a week if he's not getting on the pitch for us," explained Beale. "He trains with us every single day, it's not like he's dropping down in training. He's with the first team every minute of every day, he has three young midfielders in front of him and he's the type of personality who chases after them every day. "He has that lovely local spirit, like Dan Neil. He's a lefty, there aren't many left-footed centre-midfielders, that's why Pierre is so unique as well and a good asset. There's lots to like but we have to manage that really well because he's 16. "This year has been a breakout year for him, scoring against Southampton, he went away with England to the World Cup as well with the Under-17s which meant he missed a period of the season. Since I've come in I've been really pleased with him."
It’s funny isn’t it? I mean if speakman was picking the team I’m sure he’d play one of the 4 strikers he signed right?
Pritchard has pretty much started every gamr since beale has come in which ruins the whole TM wasnt allowed to play him
He might have been....Jobe definately needs resting. I'll be losing my patience if he starts against Stoke. Keep Riggy with the squad this week,give him a go and see how he does.
That's a bit of a misleading headline, imo. What he actually said in the article is: "I think it was always going to be the second half of the season that you were going to see him more, but that depends on a lot of factors doesn't it."
There was a bizarre article yesterday about the introduction of sin-bins into the FA cup next season and how this will "affect Sunderland, Leeds & Sheff Wed"... I still don't understand the relevance of naming those 3 teams when it will affect every team. It was such a bizarre article. I'll see if I can find it... EDIT: Here it is LINK
Lots interested in him, a promising article on him here tho. https://x.com/sunderlandafc11/status/1755204410689405096?s=61&t=ii57nWIlChD6dfZLhRoSfA
The club stayed a few weeks ago about Rigg that he was still very much part of the first team squad but that they needed him to play more games of 90 mins to help build his stamina and that was difficult to do if he was to play first team games every week which is the reason he is on bench sometimes and not others. As fans we really need to be careful with our very young talent as they can burn bright but often fail to live up to the expectation and I think with Rigg the club are being sensible, however I am expecting to see a bit more of him in this second half of the season.
Apparently a verbal professional contract has been agreed with Rigg which he is due to sign in June when he turns 17. That's absolutely tremendous news if true. He's also not going to feature any more for the U18s, and will be training with the first team permanently from now on. Apparently he's also a Sunderland fan and wants to captain the club one day, despite his dad being a newcastle fan. Again no idea if true. All via James Copley at the Echo.
