Wilson Isidor has already proven himself to be a scorer of great goals since joining Championship challengers Sunderland on a season-long loan deal from Russian giants Zenit St Petersburg.
Those stunning volleys against Coventry City and Oxford United will surely be among 2024/25’s Goal of the Season contenders. Ditto Wilson Isidor’s 80-yard dribble and dink to see off Hull City on Humberside.
But is this scorer of great goals also a great goalscorer?
That is the question facing the popular Frenchman, Sunderland’s fans expressing their frustration with Isidor after a player who has made such an impact on and off the pitch drew another blank during Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Bristol City.
For the first time in his Black Cats career, Isidor is having to deal with doubters. Then again, that is simply the territory when you are leading the line for a team with Premier League ambitions.
Sunderland have won just one of their last five games and Isidor has found the net in none of them. Criticism, especially given how many chances Le Bris’ side have missed in recent weeks, was inevitable.
Though, compared to another striker who found himself on the Black Cats’ summer shopping list, Isidor’s return of five goals from 14 starts looks at the very least respectable.
Sunderland looked at Theo Bair before signing Wilson Isidor
HITC reported back in June that Sunderland were battling to sign Motherwell’s Theo Bair with Championship rivals Blackburn Rovers and Cardiff.
The broad-shouldered, 6ft 3ins targetman had plundered 15 goals for Motherwell north of the border in 2024/25. His physicality, speed, impressive hold-up play and technical qualities, meanwhile, were four attributes which felt very translatable to life in England’s second tier.
But can Theo Bair emulate his Scottish success story across the Channel in France? Was he a centre-forward for whom the penny dropped at Fir Park, or was he a classic case of that dreaded ‘one-season wonder’?
Motherwell signed Bair from St Johnstone back in 2023 after he hit the target once in 31 games at McDiarmid Park, after all. And while France’s Ligue 1 obviously represents a big leap forward in quality, Bair’s tally of one goal from 13 Auxerre appearances is in stark contrast to the instant impact made by some of the newly-promoted side’s other, seemingly more inspired summer additions.
While Bournemouth misfit Hamed Traore is staking his claim to be named Ligue 1’s Signing of the Season, the jury is very much out on his goal-shy team-mate.
Theo Bair determined to make his Ligue 1 chance count at Auxerre
The Ontario-born Canada international has started only once for Auxerre since he was hauled off at half-time during a 3-1 defeat by Le Havre on September 1st.
And with Auxerre on a run of just two losses in nine – Bair’s only goal in that run a consolation in a rare reverse at St Etienne – coach Christophe Pelissier is understandably reluctant to try and fix what clearly is not broken.
Though as St Johnstone fans will tell you, having watched a striker who couldn’t hit a barn door with a tuba let alone a banjo during his time with The Saints, write off Theo Bair at your peril.
“Playing in a top-five league is what everyone wants to do, and it took a lot to get there,” Bair recently told Sports Net, determined to seize an opportunity he shedded so much sweat to achieve.
“I got a lot of ‘no’s’ and a lot of ‘not good enough. To finally [play at this level] is exciting. But I think it’s just the first step of the journey.”
“[In France] everyone can kind of maybe make themselves a star.”