Sunderland could now look to sell one player who only joined the club last summer.
Sunderland brought in eleven new players at the start of the season, as they parted ways with the likes of Ross Stewart, Lynden Gooch and Danny Batth.
The Black Cats welcomed a long list of young and inexperienced players to the squad, with very few of them managing to impress in their first campaign.
The likes of Luis Hemir Semedo and Eliezer Mayenda certainly didn’t fit the bill to take up the No.9 spot, while Nectarios Triantis and Nathan Bishop earned themselves very few chances in the first team.
However, there were some successes, with both Jobe Bellingham and Adil Aouchiche likely to make their mark on the senior team again next term.
The jury is still out in Timothee Pembele though, having spent the first half of the campaign on the sidelines after joining the club from Paris Saint-Germain.
Pembele has now made eight appearances in the Championship and was given a run of his first three starts last month, taking up the right wing-back role before returning to the bench in the final two fixtures.
The 21-year-old is currently facing a losing battle against Trai Hume for his spot in the team, with the Northern Ireland international one of Sunderland’s standout performers this season.
Pembele definitely showed glimpses of promise towards the end of the season, though his time on Wearside could already be cut short now.
Sunderland have been ‘looking to sell’ Timothee Pembele
We spoke to Graeme Bailey about the future of Sunderland’s two right-backs, and he admitted that it could be the Frenchman who is sold this summer.
Bailey said: “”I think you’re going to lose Hume at right-back too. Well, they were looking to sell the lad you got from PSG [Pembele], but I think one of the right-backs will go. They had originally signed the PSG boy to succeed Hume, but he hasn’t got much of a look in, has he?”
Could they both fit in the squad next season?
Sunderland will surely lose a number of their key players this summer, but fans will be well aware that there could be big trouble if they lose Trai Hume.
Having comfortably made the most successful tackles in the Championship (152), Hume is an absolute rock and would be extremely hard to replace.
If they were going to lose one right-back, then it would be Pembele that fans would be willing to sacrifice.
The defender is only 21 years old and clearly has a lot of potential, but they could well earn a decent fee from his exit if he was to move across Europe.
It will be interesting to see though, as Pembele’s speed and attacking threat could prove to be a real asset for Sunderland next season.
Having both of them will give the head coach two completely different options, especially if he decides to play wing-backs and brings Hume into more of a central role.