One Sunderland outcast is likely to have attracted ‘interest from Europe’ ahead of the summer transfer window.
Sunderland have had a pretty disastrous couple of transfer windows in the second year in the Championship.
The only arrivals that could be counted as a success so far is Jobe Bellingham, Adil Aouchiche and Jenson Seelt, though the latter is now sidelined for the rest of the year.
A hugely disappointing season for the Black Cats is likely to end with a complete overhaul of the squad, with their results since the turn of the year proving that they desperately need more experience and certainly more goals.
One of Kristjaan Speakman’s biggest mistakes was replacing Ross Stewart’s 40 goals in 80 games with four players who had never played Championship football before in Nazariy Rusyn, Mason Burstow, Eliezer Mayenda and Luis Hemir Semedo.
The latter two managed to score three goals between them, while Mayenda was sent to Scotland on loan and Hemir has continued to disappoint.
The 20-year-old has only managed four starts for the Black Cats and has seen his appearances extremely limited, failing to even step foot on the pitch on 22 occasions.
Hemir has been one of the most criticised players this term, despite enjoying a promising pre-season in which he netted four goals.
Luis Hemir likely to go on loan abroad
With Sunderland likely to invest in their No.9 position in the summer, journalist Phil Smith has now tipped Hemir to go out on loan.
Speaking on the Sunderland Echo’s YouTube channel, Smith said: “It’s going to be a big pre-season for him, because the one thing that’s been said consistently since his came in is that he’s a really good finisher behind the scenes and that they definitely feel there is a player in there. Where they feel he’s lacking that maybe physically he’s not at the level to go up against experienced Championship centre-halves and also the pressing side of things.
“So that’s why pre-season is really big for him to see if he can get to that level. I think the important thing is that he is playing football next season. If he’s not going to break through at Sunderland, then realistically Sunderland need to try and recover some of his value.
“When he left Benfica there was some compensation, so Sunderland need to rebuild that value next year and if he’s not going to be involved at Sunderland then they need him out playing somewhere.
“So I can definitely see that happening if he comes back to pre-season and he’s not up to the level, because I think there will definitely be interest in Europe because his goalscoring record at youth level was pretty good.”
Should we still stick with the 20-year-old?
Luis Hemir has looked a completely different player to the one that dominated in pre-season, but that makes sense when he was previously coming up against teams such as South Shields and San Antonio FC.
The striker clearly has something about him though, and his nine goals in 13 games for Benfica U19s was always a promising sign.
Championship football is completely different to youth football in Europe and the club will have known that when they brought him over and expected him to lead the line.
While he has really disappointed so far, we definitely shouldn’t give up on him and getting his confidence back abroad could do him the world of good.
