Sunderland winger Jocelin Ta Bi will be hoping to reiterate his first team credentials this summer.
The sun is shining, the weekend is upon us, and, judging by the photos posted to Sunderland’s official social media channels, Reinildo Mandava has already ripped the sleeves off his new Hummel training kit. We are, dear Mackems, oh so very nearly back.
While the World Cup has provided a distraction of sorts in recent weeks, for many on Wearside it is the coming campaign - and all of the promise it holds, both domestic and continental alike - that really quickens the pulse. To that end, earlier this week, Regis Le Bris’ first team - or at least those who haven’t been away on international duty - made their return to the Academy of Light to commence their preparations for the new season.
There was the usual flurry of content - videos of familiar faces arriving at the training ground, galleries of players undergoing various tests to determine various metrics. And in amongst it all - featured quite prominently, actually - was Jocelin Ta Bi.
More than most in red and white, the Ivorian winger faces an intriguing couple of months. Signed for a relative pittance in January, the broadly held consensus was that he would be an acquisition for the future - a player to develop patiently behind the scenes. Instead, an evidently impressed Le Bris saw fit to incorporate him into his plans almost immediately, and what followed was a pair of first team outings before an untimely injury curtailed his season.
Depending on how things pan out, that setback could also represent something of a reset. With Sunderland having qualified for the Europa League, and with their right wing berth looking notably understaffed in the wake of Bertrand Traore’s departure, there is an expectation that Florent Ghisolfi and his recruitment team will prioritise reinforcements in that area of the pitch this summer. For a player in Ta Bi’s position - inexperienced and on the periphery - that could, ordinarily, lead to a nudge down the pecking order and a possible exit.
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But the 21-year-old may stay put yet. For one thing, there is a feeling on Wearside that he would be best served continuing his adaptation to the English game with his parent club, rather than out on loan somewhere. For another, he has enjoyed a remarkably eye-catching summer. Ta Bi was a key member of the Ivory Coast squad that finished third at the prestigious Toulon Tournament last month, scoring twice and finishing runner-up in the Player of the Tournament vote. He is, in other words, thriving.
Now the precocious talent is back with Sunderland, fully fit, and wholly involved in their preseason. He has before him a real opportunity to once again prove his worth to Le Bris, on both the training pitch and in the Black Cats’ upcoming schedule of friendly fixtures. If he can do that - and especially given the scarcity of options Sunderland possess out on the right at the time of writing - then who is to say how heavily he could feature for his new club over the coming weeks and months?
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