Despite the summer window being several weeks away, Sunderland’s weekend clash with Manchester United created some serious transfer speculation.
Sunderland held third-placed Manchester United to a 0-0 draw on Saturday afternoon, with both sides earning a hard-fought point despite both having chances to win.
Black Cats midfielder Noah Sadiki was denied early on in the first half by a strong save from Senne Lammens, and into the second 45’, the Red Devils shot-stopper denied Brian Brobbey with another important intervention.
Following the save from Brobbey’s left-footed effort, his teammate and compatriot Lutsharel Geertruida struck a deft effort that seemed to be curling past Lammens but was cruelly denied by the post after some brilliant link-up between the two Sunderland players.
With central defender Dan Ballard’s suspension being upheld for the United clash, RB Leipzig loanee Geertruida was returned to the Black Cats’ starting XI by Regis Le Bris after a four-game spell on the substitutes bench, and the Dutchman’s performance clearly highlighted where Sunderland could be heading for a costly transfer error.
Sunderland must sign Lutsharel Geertruida after his display vs Man Utd
With Ballard’s campaign curtailed, many Sunderland supporters hoped to see Geertruida return to the starting XI ahead for the visit of Michael Carrick’s side, and their wish was granted with the loanee slotted in at right-back and Nordi Mukiele rotated from full-back to the centre of defence.
Geertruida directly faced-off against the in-form Matheus Cunha, who had notched two goals in the two games prior to the Stadium of Light showpiece, and managed to keep the dynamic Brazilian relatively quiet throughout the afternoon.
Additionally, the former Feyenoord full-back came inches close to notching his first Sunderland goal with a quality effort from the edge of United’s box which had Lammens rooted, with Geertruida bursting inside the field from right-back and hitting the post after excellent one-touch interplay with Brobbey.
From a statistical perspective, Geertruida enjoyed an 87% passing accuracy, made four defensive contributions and was then cruelly close to breaking the deadlock.
Recently, various reports have emerged regarding the Dutch international’s footballing future, with Sky Sports Germany indicating that “Geertruida will not stay at Sunderland” beyond the summer and that the Black Cats hierarchy have opted not to trigger the £17m buy option in his loan deal from Leipzig.
Regis Le Bris discusses Geertruida's Sunderland future
Contrarily, after Geertruida’s impressive performance against United, Le Bris failed to make such assertions.
As quoted by the Sunderland Echo, the Sunderland boss said: "It was the opportunity for Lucha (Geertruida) to play this game and he did well.
"I don't know (of any transfer decision) - at the minute he's a player of Sunderland and he did well today, which was a real positive.
“We still have two games to play and until the end of June he will be with us so we'll see. It's a bit early to speak about next season because we want to finish this one and after that it's a decision between the player, the club and in this context another club. After that we have to make a decision."
Throughout the campaign, Sunderland fans have been perplexed as to why Geertuida has failed to feature more, with just 15 starts and just over 1500 minutes of Premier League football to his name for the Black Cats.
Considering his assured performance against one of the top flight’s best attacks, his ability and equally impressive adaptability, and the relatively modest potential fee involved to permanently purchase the 25-year-old talent, it would be an extremely short-sighted lapse in judgement from the Sunderland transfer team to let Geertruida go.