It becomes more apparent how likely Sunderland is to sign Luciano Rodriguez.

Luciano Rodriguez: The wonderchild of Uruguay

The right-winger, who is 20 years old, has made an impression both at home and abroad. Only recently did Uruguay’s top division, the Primera División, begin play, and so far, Rodriguez has scored twice in five games. He contributed a total of 13 goals and assists in 31 games during the previous campaign.

Out of all of his diamond potential, there are some areas where he has proven to be a bit rough around the edges. In as many games this season, he has made five mistakes that have resulted in shots, only completes 67% of his passes, and struggles to win duels.

He scored the game-winning goal in the under-20 World Cup final versus Italy. In 18 games over his career, the forward has scored 11 goals for his nation’s under-20 and under-23 teams.

He prefers to come in from the right and occupy space more centrally, despite being natively right-footed, as evidenced by his heatmaps from this season and the previous one.

There is little likelihood that Sunderland will get Luciano Rodriguez.

It was always going to be difficult for the Black Cats to get their hands on him. Considering some of the other teams that were snooping around the future stars, they were never going to be the largest dog in the fight.

Sunderland’s prospects of signing another young jewel have decreased even further now that the city group and a premier club with European heritage, such as Feyenoord, have expressed a firm interest in the player.

Their proposal would have been clear to him. “We want you to be the jewel in our crown and hopefully you can take us to the Premier League, or we can sell you there, in a few years’ time. We are building one of the youngest, most exciting teams in Europe.” Would that have been sufficient to compete with the other brands they face? Most likely not. It appears certain that Rodriguez will fulfill his dream of playing in Europe. That simply cannot be for Sunderland.