The grass is not always greener, Benji
TEEN TALENT MUST MAKE SURE NUMBERS ADD UP
TEENAGE talents are bombarded with numbers when it comes to contract talks – mostly those followed by a series of noughts.
And Benji Kimpioka’s agent has thrown in the number one for good measure, announcing that his client will only stay at Sunderland if he is regarded as a first-team player.
It is a bold statement given that Kimpioka’s fledgling career includes only four League One appearances, totalling less than half-an-hour, and a handful of games in the EFL Trophy.
Still, with the 19-year-old in the final year of his current deal on Wearside, Kimpioka’s camp probably feel they can afford to play hardball knowing that Sunderland are keen to avoid losing him at the end of the season for minimal compensation.
But there are other numbers that Kimpioka should consider besides noughts and one – he should look at how others have fared when they left in the belief that the grass might be greener elsewhere.
He could look, for instance, at another academy graduate Josh Maja who refused to sign a new contract with Sunderland last season, and forced through a January move to French top flight side Bordeaux instead.
It was a lucrative switch for the 20-year-old, no doubt, but it has come at a cost to his career. Maja was a firstteam regular at Sunderland in the first half of last season, and departed Wearside with 15 goals in 24 league appearances.
And if Kimpioka crunches the numbers, he will find that Maja has managed just 325 minutes Joel Asoro at Swansea. Right, Josh Maja while at Sunderland – the equivalent of just over three-and-a-half full games – of Ligue 1 action for his new employers, scoring two goals.
Even allowing for the fact he missed the final month of last season through injury, it is still hardly a great start.
Or consider the case of Joel Asoro, who was 19 and had just entered the final year of his contract at Sunderland when he decided he wanted to leave last summer and made a £2m move to Swansea City.
He toiled through 458 goalless minutes in the Championship for the Swans last season, and has now been farmed out to Dutch club Groningen on loan for a year – and he has only played three minutes there.
That adds up to the equivalent of just over five full league games in more than a year.
Unsurprisingly, Asoro himself has recently wondered aloud whether he might have made a mistake in leaving Sunderland.
So what next for Kimpioka?
He is still a raw talent – having seen him play many times for Sunderland’s U23s, he is capable of producing moments of quality and skill but he is also inconsistent and has a lot to learn if he is to realise his potential.
His contract stand-off has seen him drift out of the first-team picture, with owner Stewart Donald telling Jack Ross in April that he cannot play him until he commits to a new deal.
Interestingly, when Ross needed a young striker as a back-up option on the bench for last week’s cup tie at Sheffield United, he turned to Lee Connelly instead saying the Scot’s form for the U23s meant he was ahead of Kimpioka in the queue.
A new contract is still on the table at Sunderland awaiting Kimpioka’s signature.
He would be welladvised to put pen to paper.