The promising Sunderland duo with a perfect opportunity to prove themselves on US tour
Sunderland are set to kick-off their tour of the USA against Liverpool on Saturday.
Both have made significant impacts for the U21s in recent times, both have been heralded as the next big thing on Wearside, and now, both have travelled with Sunderland’s first team for their preseason tour of the USA.
Between them, Trey Ogunsuyi and Finn Geragusian are widely regarded as representing the next two most probable heirs in the Black Cats’ line of succession at the point of attack. The former, 10 months older and all the more experienced for it, has already graduated beyond youth football, and, aside from making his senior Sunderland debut in a cameo FA Cup appearance back in January of last year, has spent time out on loan with the likes of Falkirk and Shrewsbury Town.
By contrast, Geragusian is still yet to make his first team bow at club level, but holds the somewhat anomalous distinction of having already made his senior international debut for Armenia. At just 18, he is already considered to be one of his nation’s brightest prospects.
How his promise - and indeed, Ogunsuyi’s - translates into meaningful opportunities on Wearside in the immediate future, however, remains to be seen. One of the few, ever-so-minor downsides of Sunderland’s accelerated progress under Regis Le Bris - from the Championship to the Premier League, and now on again to the Europa League - is that the pathways from academy to first team football seem steeper than ever for the club’s prodigious array of youth talent. Continental ambitions bring with them continental recruitment strategies, and the pecking order lengthens accordingly.
But Sunderland’s current tour of the United States could present a unique opening for certain players - and especially Ogunsuyi and Geragusian - to prove themselves. Not only will they be training in a first team environment, right under Le Bris’ nose, but a lack of options up front could naturally lend itself to minutes over the coming days too.
With Brian Brobbey not set to link up with his teammates until July 26th following his World Cup exploits, and with Eliezer Mayenda long since headed for pastures new, the only senior recognised striker initially named in Sunderland’s travelling cohort is Wilson Isidor - a man who himself spent a decent chunk of his summer representing Haiti in North America.
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As such, when the Black Cats kick off their US excursion against Liverpool on Saturday, its not unimaginable that either Ogunsuyi, Geragusian, or both are involved in some capacity. The same could be said of subsequent meetings with Leeds United and Wrexham a few days later.
Of course, there is an expectation that Sunderland will, at some point, turn their attention towards signing a striker between now and the end of the transfer window, and it is highly unlikely that any kind of showing from Ogunsuyi or Geragusian would alter their thinking in that sense. But this trip stateside still represents a significant opportunity for both young centre-forwards to not only reiterate that they are ready for the rigours of first team football, but that one day relatively soon, they could be real difference-makers at the Stadium of Light.