Was it a smart move to give Niall Huggins a new contract?

Gav says…

This news came a bit out of the blue and I don’t think anyone expected it – which again is a testament to the way the club operates now, with very little leaking out of the Academy of Light these days – but this is not the case. It is difficult to see the logic in the decision.

Yes, there is no denying that Niall Huggins is injury prone. He’s had more injuries than I’ve had hot dinners, and I like my bait… but the club doesn’t take decisions like this lightly and I think that’s a sign that his recovery is progressing well. If that wasn’t the case and he didn’t show the right attitude, we simply wouldn’t make him an offer to extend his stay.

The other important factor is Niall’s age. We’re not talking about a boy in his late 20s or early 30s destined for the trash heap – he’s only 23, and with modern science and recovery methods, it’s very easy for someone that young to get away with it To fully recover from a torn cruciate ligament abort and have a long and fruitful career.

We haven’t been privy to the details of the deal, but I suspect the club has structured this in a similar way to the deals we’ve done with Corry Evans and Jordan Willis in recent years, whereby they have a longer annual fee over an additional year. This gives the player the opportunity to get fit without having to worry about whether or not he will have a club in the summer.

Put yourself in Huggins’ shoes – this must be extremely discouraging, and it won’t help your recovery process if you’re contemplating whether you’ll be able to play at the highest level again.

As far as his skillset goes, Huggins has proven that he is more than capable at the championship level. He is versatile and adapts well to position changes during games and I don’t think there is any doubt that we suffered from the loss last season when his season was cruelly ended by a freak incident. When he – and this is a big problem, especially when he is a player whose game relies on his pace to get out of difficult situations – gets fit and competitive again, I don’t think there are many better backup full-backs in the league. The road back is still long, but the goal should be for Niall to compete on an equal footing with the others in pre-season. That’s still a long way to go but an achievable goal, similar to when he returned for pre-season this year and successfully established himself as an important part of the first team.

I don’t see any disadvantages in this step. If the worst-case scenario happens and Niall never comes back, the club will have at least fulfilled its duty of care and given a player who was injured for Sunderland’s cause a fair chance to make a full recovery.

Andrew Smithson says…

Sunderland are getting smarter about their contract management and this latest move gives the club and the player a bit of security.

Huggins is a brilliant option if he can avoid further long-term problems and if we show confidence in him now we could end up seeing the best years of his career or looking forward to a decent transfer fee.

It may seem a bit calculating, but this is the best approach and beats previous approaches where we were either saddled with deadwood that we couldn’t move or had to let popular names pass for far less than their value.

On a human level, I’m also happy that we seem to care about people and do things right. Things like awarding new contracts to those who warrant it or allowing former cadre members to use our facilities until they are dealt with can only bring positive results.

I look forward to seeing Huggins back on the field and wish him all the best in his recovery. If he is available it will give us a big boost and give us some very important depth.

Malc Dugdale says…

I’m really happy for the boy and equally pleased with how the club deals with players with injury problems like this.

He is a very good player who has repeatedly been plagued by unfortunate injuries. He definitely deserves a chance and doesn’t deserve to run out of time to come back in red and white.

This will give him the incentive to train hard during rehab and get his fitness back up to speed.

It must be pretty depressing to be so lucky with injuries, so it’s something to work towards – a light in the tunnel, so to speak.

We’re never looking for decent defenders and he’s got a goal or two in him too, as he’s shown when he’s been fit, so it’s a good deal and something that makes sense for Huggins too.

That’s pretty typical for us right now and the same approach we’ve used with players like Corry Evans and others is very refreshing and poses next to no risk to the club.

Nice, Speakman.