​HARRISON, NEW JERSEY – JULY 30: Chris Rigg #11 of Sunderland AFC on the ball during the pre-season friendly against Leeds United at Sports Illustrated Stadium on July 30, 2026 in Harrison, New Jersey. (Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images) | Getty Images Following a particularly drab Manchester derby in April 2025, a visibly frustrated Gary Neville took it upon himself to bemoan what he termed the “robotic” nature of football and the game itself during his post-match analysis, even going as far as to apologise for a lack of enthusiasm during his Sky Sports commentary.Pep Guardiola and Ruben Amorim’s teams had played out an absolute non-event of a match and fundamentally, Neville was right: modern football is, to a large extent, irritatingly machine-tooled and increasingly cold.Rigid systems rule the roost, statistics are king and ‘philosophies’ (often used as a smokescreen for an overly complex approach or when results start to go south) are everywhere.Open YouTube and you’re never more than two clicks away from mountains of retro clips featuring footballers expressing themselves, trusting their skills and delivering more often than not, and at Sunderland, there’s one player in particular that’s harking back to that era.I don’t think I’ll cause a tidal wave of controversy by suggesting that Chris Rigg’s footballing intelligence is elite.His ability on the ball — even by Sunderland’s recent standards of developing skilful players — is eye-catching and his ever-increasing understanding of his role within the team and how he can best impact games is becoming more and more difficult to overlook.The youngster from Hebburn has enjoyed a very promising pre-season, impressing during the Lads’ trip to America and then catching the eye and setting up Trai Hume for the opening goal during Sunderland’s 0-2 victory over Lens on Saturday.It takes both a lot of quality and a lot of maturity to stand out in this Sunderland side and although Rigg is physically slight compared to his more powerful teammates (for any NHL buffs who might read this, the burly Thomas Meunier may well be Dave Semenko to Rigg’s Wayne Gretzky this season — don’t mess with our new Belgian enforcer), his talent burns too brightly to ignore and it’s safe to say that he’s most definitely “in” when it comes to featuring in our plans for the coming season.Régis Le Bris is clearly fond of Rigg and appreciative of both his talent and his attitude.The Frenchman’s background in youth development has positioned him perfectly to oversee Rigg’s progression and one wonders what kind of emotions Tony Mowbray, who brought him into the fold three years ago, and Kristjaan Speakman, whose belief in youth development was central to our rise in recent times, will be feeling at this stage.Pride, you would imagine, as well as vindication. I think most supporters knew he was good and so did they, yet instead of stalling following our elevation to the top flight