Sunderland: Permanent summer move for 20-cap international would be bad business: View | OneFootball

Sunderland completed a move for Callum Styles in January, signing the utility man from League One outfit Barnsley.

The left-footed central midfielder/wing-back spent the 2022/23 season on loan with Millwall, but featured just 22 times in the second tier due to a long-term injury, and he did not get an expected move back to the second tier in the summer.

Then, back at Oakwell, he was more often than not in Neill Collins' starting line-up during the first half of the campaign. The 24-year-old made 20 appearances in League One this term, scoring three times and assisting a further two.

Styles performed well in previous years for the South Yorkshire outfit, but going into January he had just 18 months left on his deal with the club, so it was always possible that he would be on the move from the Tykes with just a matter of hours left in the transfer window, and that is what happened.

Sunderland hold an option to buy clause as part of their deal with the League One side, but it remains to be seen what kind of fee it would cost to complete the transfer.

Styles' versatility was potentially to be of huge benefit, as he is capable of operating anywhere down the left flank, as well as in central-midfield.

At 24, he fits the model for Sunderland of signing youth or pre-peak players with potential sell-on value, whilst, crucially, Styles has been a good player at Championship level before, be that with Millwall or during Barnsley's play-off tilt a few seasons ago.

However, with Styles’ underwhelming start to life at the Stadium of Light, perhaps there will be second thoughts over making it a permanent stay with the club.

He has made eight appearances so far, including six starts, with injury keeping him out of action initially following the move. The games since have not been particularly impressive.

Styles performed fairly well on his debut against Swansea City, but he has struggled to make much of an impact since. Given it is a loan, Styles only has less than four months to prove himself, which can be a difficult environment.

So far, he has been utilised as a wide player, either as a winger, wing-back, or full-back, with a mixture of success under Mike Dodds, and he was an unused substitute during the weekend's game against Bristol City, which was a 0-0 draw.

Prior to that, he had really struggled at left-back against Blackburn Rovers during a 5-1 drubbing, leaving plenty of Sunderland fans scratching their heads as to why he was signed, having shown very little upside so far.

A better performance against Leeds United in a defensive sense during the 0-0 draw at Elland Road in his latest start is more of what is required, but it may all be too late for Styles given his lack of involvement thus far.

The games he has been involved in have been five defeats, a solitary win, and two draws, with Sunderland falling completely out of the play-off picture in recent months.

Despite impressing under Valerien Ismael during the 2020/21 season, which saw Barnsley narrowly miss out on promotion to the Premier League, Styles has never managed to recapture that form.

Since finding out that his grandmother is Hungarian in 2020, Styles was then handed his first call-up in March 2022, and has gone on to receive 20 caps for his nation to date, which will likely increase further at the European Championships in Germany this summer.

They are in a group with the hosts, alongside Scotland and Switzerland, where Styles has also been largely impressive. That form has simply not translated to top performances for his current club side, though.

With just a year left on his deal at Oakwell, there is a good chance that the fee to bring Styles permanently to Sunderland is fairly negligible, but on current form? There is no justifiable reason to sign Styles permanently, unless he performs near-perfectly in the final four games.