Phil Smith brings fans up to speed with the latest from Sunderland's pre-season tour in Costa Blanca
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00:00Hello, Buenas Tardes from Alicante. It's time for your latest daily update video from me
00:16out here with Sunland in Spain in Alicante. I am getting some shade. I'm not going to
00:20go on too long today because it is sweltering. My Sunland constitution is struggling. What
00:25is that bringing you up to speed with today? Well, a little bit of a development in the
00:28goalkeeping department. Blondie Nukeo, who some of you will know obviously played 90
00:33minutes in the South Shields, he's been on trial with the club. I'm not 100% sure that's
00:37how you pronounce his surname, so don't take that as gospel. I'll try and find out. He's
00:40actually out here in Spain with the team. He wasn't officially named in the touring
00:45camp. That was Anthony Patterson, Simon Moore, and under-21s goalkeeper Kelechi Chibuyeze.
00:49They were all named. But Nukeo is here. Now, he hasn't signed for the club. That hasn't
00:53happened yet, but we understand that it's looking fairly likely given that he's out
00:57here and he's obviously made a bit of an impression on trial. We know that Matt Young
01:01is not out here, the 17-year-old, because basically a loan move to the AFL, League Two,
01:05is pretty imminent. It's obvious that you've been strongly linked. And basically, I think
01:10that Nukeo's arrival, if it does happen, just basically gives Young the opportunity to go
01:14out and play more regularly. Sunland think it's a brilliant opportunity for a 17-year-old
01:18to play at that level and he'll get a lot out of it. It just protects Sunland's goalkeeping
01:21ranks, gives it some depth, and it means that lads like Adam Richardson, Dan Cameron, they
01:25could potentially go out and loan to the National League at some point over the course
01:28of the season, obviously outside of the transfer windows. So, we'll have to see how that progresses.
01:32It's not happened yet. I don't think it would happen if, for whatever reason, any Matt Young
01:35loan deal fell through, but that's certainly on the cards.
01:37What else have we got to talk about? Kits. Away kit's going to be released at 10am tomorrow.
01:42Pretty exciting. I think everybody knows it's going to be a good one. We don't know too
01:46much about it because obviously Sunland want to keep it under lock and key, but it's pretty
01:50clear from all the promos they've done so far that it's going to be inspired by that
01:541992 Cup Final kit. So, it's going to have that green on it. The club are really excited.
01:59I know they think it's going to be a big seller, especially after how well the home shirt did.
02:03I get the feeling that the players will play in it tomorrow night, so that'll be something
02:05to watch out for. Yeah, so that's going to be really interesting. We also know that David
02:10Bruce's interviews when the club shop opened talked about how they were going to use the
02:14old crest and the 1973 crest, and if this shirt is inspired by 1992, I wonder if we'll
02:21see that old ship crest, which will be very exciting for Sunland fans of a certain generation.
02:24So, it's going to be really exciting to see that kit drop tomorrow. And the other thing
02:28just to bring you up to speed on, I had a really good chat with Alan Brown today, obviously
02:31Sunland's summer signing. He talked about why he left Preston. He was obviously given
02:35a fantastic contract offer by Preston. He'd been there for 10 years. Really interesting
02:39to talk about at 29, how he wanted to leave his comfort zone. He felt he got settled at
02:43Preston. Why did he leave Preston? Like I say, he wanted to get out of that comfort
02:47zone, but more importantly, why did he come to Sunland? Well, it was really interesting
02:50talking to him about that. He talked about the size of the fan base, as you would expect,
02:53and what an amazing opportunity it is to play for such an incredibly passionate support.
02:57What was really also really interesting was he said the main reason really for him was
03:01the quality of the squad. He said he knows it was a poor season last year, but he genuinely
03:04believes this is a squad that can compete for the playoffs. He said he'd been unbelievably
03:07impressed with the quality of the team when he'd played against them, obviously over the
03:12last couple of seasons. He said even in that game where Sunland, you may remember, lost
03:151-0 to Preston at the start of last season away at Deepdale, he said that Sunland had
03:19batted Preston and that Preston should never have won that game and that he genuinely believes
03:22that there's a squad here that can go and compete for promotion. He talked about his
03:26role within the side. He said it's probably his best position as an eight, getting forwards,
03:30a bit more box-to-box, crashing the box, trying to score goals. But I think fans will also
03:33be happy to hear that he said he's also very happy to play as a Holy Midfielder. It's something
03:37he's done before. It's something he's comfortable with. Something that I think most of us have
03:40felt that in the absence of Corey Evans, Sunland have really lacked at times. We understand
03:44they're not going to play with a Holy Midfielder in certain games, especially when you're at
03:47home, you want to dominate the ball, get high up the pitch, get as many plays in the
03:50box as possible. But encouraging, I think, is something to consider. They've added an
03:55option that can at least do that because in certain games it's required. And hopefully
03:58that will help bring out the best of the likes of PR Equo and Dan Neal, if there's someone
04:02alongside them who has a little bit more comfort doing those defensive roles. Now, there's
04:06already a little bit on his fitness, on his plans for his debut, all that kind of stuff
04:09on the Sunland Eagle website. You'll also be able to read my full interview with him
04:13this tea time, so hopefully you can go and read that. I would really recommend it, not
04:16because I've written it, but because he was a really good interviewee. I think you can
04:19tell straight away that he's going to be a really good leader in that dressing room.
04:22He's going to speak really well. He said it was something that he was happy to do, always
04:25happy to do. And something he felt he could add to the squad. You know, he said it's a
04:28really talented squad, but maybe that game that Sunland lost when they dominated at Preston
04:32showed maybe what's lacking. A bit of now staying in the game, understanding the importance
04:36of taking your chances. Spoke about the importance of sticking together through tough spells
04:40in the campaign. So I think he'll really add something to that dressing room. But he also
04:44made a point of saying, I'm not coming in here to run the show. I've got to earn everybody's
04:47respect. So yeah, I felt he had a bit of a quiet steveness about him. A real determination
04:53to do well here. And I think he's going to be a really good signing. That's pretty much
04:56it. The only thing I wanted to talk about a little bit more was a lot of you asked on
04:59yesterday's video about the striker search. You mentioned about the striker from League
05:042 in France, Mendy from Ken. I'm not sure where that one's at, to be honest. It's pretty
05:09clear that Sunland have made an inquiry, but he also has a loophole offer from Saudi Arabia
05:13at 29. I'm sure that's something he's thinking about because at that age you don't have too
05:16many much contracts left in you. So we'll have to wait and see how that one develops.
05:20I think the encouraging thing for me is that if you go back to January, Sunland did show
05:24that they were willing to do a low move with an experienced striker. Keith Moore was one
05:28of them. They couldn't get that over the line. But we're seeing again this summer with this
05:31move from Mendy, that there's a sign that they're willing to be a little bit more flexible,
05:35that they actually understand that they probably need a more experienced striker. So those
05:39younger players like Roots, I know he's 25 but he's still adjusting to England, but especially
05:43the likes of Jamiro and Mienda, can maybe develop and work their way into the team away
05:47from the glare and the pressure of being Sunland's leading striker. I know Mienda impressed a
05:51lot of people at the weekend, did really well. I'm hoping he'll get an opportunity to get
05:55Nottingham Forest and Elden, so maybe we'll see a bit more from him and see whether he
05:58can be a real option this season. So I think that's about it for today. I'll obviously
06:03keep your eye out for the kids tomorrow. I'll be back after the Nottingham Forest game.
06:06I'm going to do your classic On The Whistle video. So keep an eye out on my Twitter page
06:09because I'll be putting out a call for questions at full time tomorrow. So feel free to fire
06:13on in. If you want to leave any questions in the comments under this video as well,
06:17I can do that. So yeah, we'll be back every day with one of these in some capacity. Thanks
06:21for watching.