Marc Guiu made his debut for Sunderland from the bench on Saturday afternoon.
You know that scene at the beginning of Elf in which Buddy - the film’s protagonist, played by Will Ferrell - is sat crammed behind a classroom desk in a little wooden hut, legs all over the place, towering high above everything around him? Well, that’s kind of how I imagine Marc Guiu must have looked out on the training grounds of Barcelona’s oft-fabled La Masia youth academy.
In other words, the teenage striker is no twinkle-toed Catalan hobbit, but rather a proper, old school, bruising unit of a number nine, and within moments of being introduced for his Sunderland debut on Saturday afternoon, it was vastly apparent as to the kind of qualities that the Chelsea loanee will offer to Regis Le Bris on Wearside.
Of course, the circumstances surrounding the Spaniard’s first forays as a Black Cat were far from ideal. His new side were trailing 1-0 to a resolute Burnley at a bubbling Turf Moor, and there were just 10 minutes or so left to play when he was beckoned from the bench - although the actual length of his cameo would end up being roughly twice that once a hefty slab of added time was whittled through.
Nor did Guiu make the sort of seismic impact that he did on his professional debut for boyhood club Barcelona as a 17-year-old, a sensational baptism in which he netted with near enough his first touch to sucker punch an unsuspecting Athletic Bilbao a couple of years back. Indeed, by the time the final whistle shrilled to put Sunderland out of their misery in Lancashire, Burnley had doubled their lead, and the young attacker had failed to so much as sting the palms of Clarets goalkeeper Martin Dubravka.
Nevertheless, this was a relatively fleeting glimpse that promised much. If nothing else, it is blindingly evident that Guiu is a grafter. He will chase and he will hassle, he will fluster and he will put himself about with an instinctive abandon that brings to mind less a bull in a china shop, and more a bull dead set on goring a foolhardy pedestrian on the cobbled streets of Pamplona.
That kind of snorting, bustling application is likely to endear him greatly to a fanbase who have an immense appetite for affable lunatics. On first inspection, it would appear that Guiu might just be the sort of character to reciprocate that affection wholeheartedly as well. Literal seconds after entering the fray on Saturday, he was flinging himself around like a man possessed by the spirit of a shoe in a washing machine, desperately trying to intercept clearances and pin Burnley back in their own defensive third, flailing his arms around in an effort to galvanise the travelling away support as he did so.
The Echo has launched a new WhatsApp SAFC Channel to bring the latest news, analysis and team & injury updates direct to your phone. Simply click this link to join ourSAFC WhatsApp channel.
In response, those Mackems in the Cricket Field Stand fired up a rendition of a chant previously dedicated to another Sunderland number nine who used to enjoy bothering defenders, Ellis Simms. It can be a little surreal watching the seeds of adoration germinate in real time.
There will be better afternoons than Saturday for the Black Cats over the coming weeks and months, and the hope will be that there will also be many more tangible - and prolonged - contributions from Guiu too. But certainly, in terms of a first impression, the striker did a lot of things right in a short space of time this weekend.
Continue Reading