Sunderland have taken a free agent with them to their pre-season camp in Spain.
Regis Le Bris has taken the Sunderland first-team squad to Spain as part of their pre-season preparations.
The Black Cats will face Nottingham Forest and Eldense during their time in Spain, before returning to the UK for friendlies against Blackpool and Bradford City.
Sunderland travel to Cardiff City for their opening game of the 2024/25 Championship campaign on August 10th.
So far this summer, sporting director Kristjaan Speakman has gotten deals over the lines for two new players; two free agents in goalkeeper Simon Moore and midfielder Alan Browne.
The goalkeeping department looks set for a bit of a shake up this summer following the exit of Alex Bass and the loan exit of Nathan Bishop to Wycombe Wanderers.
Matty Young is expected to join Salford City on loan this week whilst Sunderland have taken a closer look at released Stoke City goalkeeper Blondy Nna Noukeu, who’s been on trial at Sunderland.
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Sunderland take Blondy Nna Noukeu on Spain pre-season camp
Noukeu, 22, recently featured for Sunderland in a friendly win over South Shields.
It was reported that he’s been offered a permanent contract by Sunderland, though he’s yet to become a Sunderland player.
Now, Sunderland Echo have revealed that Noukeu has been taken with the first-team squad to their pre-season camp in Spain.
In five years at Stoke, Cameroonian goalkeeper Noukeu never made a league appearance, instead spending time on loan with Crawley and Southend United.
Why Kristjaan Speakman is managing Sunderland goalkeeper issue well
Sunderland have a lot of promising young goalkeepers in their ranks, and many would argue that one of them should be the no.2.
But if one of the likes of Young or Bishop was no.2 next season, they wouldn’t get any first-team experience, barring an injury to no.1 Anthony Patterson.
So signing Noukeu allows for the likes of Young to now go out on loan, whilst signing Moore gives Le Bris an experienced alternative should Patterson be injured next season, unavailable, or should he move on during this summer’s transfer window.
Still, Speakman arguably has much bigger issues to attend to before the summer transfer window slams shut on August 30th.
There’s the not-so-small issue of signing a prolific no.9 after several transfer windows of trying, as well as the futures of several key players to finalise, including Jack Clarke and Trai Hume among others.