Hopes are high for recent Sunderland signing Habib Diarra

Pundit Don Goodman has claimed that Sunderland may have found a “jewel” in new signing Habib Diarra, and has suggested that the Senegal international could go on to become better than the recently sold Jobe Bellingham.

The Black Cats broke their transfer record to sign the 21-year-old from RC Strasbourg earlier this summer, and he would go on to make a promising first impression during last weekend’s 4-0 friendly victory over non-league South Shields.

But while it may still be early days for Diarra’s career on Wearside, Goodman is of the opinion that the recent acquisition can establish himself as a major asset at the Stadium of Light.

What has Don Goodman said about Sunderland signing Habib Diarra?

Speaking exclusively with football betting site talkSPORTBET, Goodman said: “Fair play to them. They're carrying on with the same philosophy. There's five players they've signed already. Four of them are young, plus the experienced Reinildo who played 30 games for Atletico Madrid last season and half a dozen in the Champions League.

“So the theme remains the same in terms of recruitment. It's mostly young with the odd bit of experience. I like that. I like what they've done. In Diarra, they may have found a little jewel.

“He’s 21 years old, over 100 games already for Strasbourg and already 11 caps and four goals for Senegal, I think he scored against England. So I think he's a player that Sunderland fans will be excited about.

“Based on the data, it looks to me as if he's pretty much good at everything, he really can carry the ball, he can disrupt the play, can pass. He's not cheap, but they may have found a jewel.”

He added: “I think if you're looking at survival, if you look at last season's three relegated clubs, they all conceded more than 80 goals. I do think that's an area that promoted teams really, really struggle with because the strikers, the wide players and the general superior quality of player in the Premier League, the pressure that defences of newly promoted teams come under is massive really.

“It’s all about a balance and it seems to me that you need to stop the goals, obviously as your number one priority. But then at the other end, we'll see if they'll struggle to score. But in Simon Adingra, you could argue at this stage in his career, he's slightly ahead of where Tommy Watson is right now. You could argue that Diarra will be as good, if not better than Jobe Bellingham possibly. So I do think that they've recruited well.

“Obviously, promoted clubs struggle. We've seen that. It's very rare that a club gets promoted and is up the top end. It may take one, two, three or four years of stabilising yourself as a Premier League club.

“You look at the likes of [Nottingham] Forest, Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth, who were all challenging for Europe last season, then you do it that way. But the number one priority for me is making yourself hard to play against and hard to beat. In the Premier League, yes you need to score goals, but I think it's a defensive scenario that will ultimately define whether or not you're able to survive.”

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