da 888casino： Sunderland have gone continental in their search for another new striker as Tony Mowbray looks to further add to a squad capable of challenging for Premier League promotion once again.
What are the latest Sunderland transfer rumours?
da betobet： The Black Cats suffered a disappointing playoff semi-final loss to Luton Town a little over a month ago, but since then they have moved to bring in Nectarios Triantis, Jobe Bellingham and Luis 'Hemir' Semedo.
Semedo impressed for Benfica B last season but is still a relative rookie, having yet to play any senior football, and that could mean Mowbray spreading his proverbial net further out in search for an unpolished gem.
French outlet Le Parisien reports that Rennes forward Matthis Abline may be just the player, with the Black Cats said to be keeping an eye on his situation.
Who is Rennes forward Matthis Abline?
Abline has already played 38 times in Ligue 1 and also has four Europa League appearances to his name, which includes a goal in Rennes' 1-1 group-stage draw with Larnaca last season.
With that strike, he overtook El-Hadji Diouf as Rennes' youngest scorer in European competition, earning praise from football reporter Tom Maston as "another top talent" to emerge through the club's academy.
That was one of just four senior goals the youngster has netted, suggesting he is hardly the 15-goal-plus attacker many Championship clubs crave, but 22 of his 30 league appearances with Rennes and loan side Auxerre came as a substitute last season.
The 20-year-old is also attracting interest from French sides Strasbourg and Lorient, while Rennes value him at €8m (£7m), so he clearly has something about him.
Indeed, while there is definitely room for improvement in terms of his goal return, FBref ranks Abline in the top 15% for progressive carries per 90 minutes (1.96) in comparison to his positional peers across Europe's top five leagues, and top 14% for both successful take-ons (1.20) and touches in the opposition penalty box (5.81).
To give those numbers some context, at a lower level last season, the highly-regarded Ellis Simms registered 1.92 progressive carries per 90 minutes for Sunderland, 0.48 successful take-ons and 4.64 touches in the opposition box.
Abline also stands out in terms of various defensive metrics such as interceptions (0.34 per 90 minutes) and blocks (0.77) – putting him in the top 16% and 18% respectively among his peers – which shows he is capable of doing both sides of the game.
With Amad Diallo back at Manchester United and Jack Clarke continually linked with a move away, it might well be that France U21 international Abline is considered an ideal option to partner the returning Ross Stewart.
Stewart's 1.12 goals and assists per 90 last season was the third-best return of any Championship players to have played 10 games or more, meaning he is capable of taking care of that side of things.
If Abline can add some goals to his game, the data shows he can be an upgrade on Simms at the Stadium of Light, which will in turn only benefit Stewart when he is fully back up to speed.