Sunderland have so far managed to keep hold of their biggest assets after almost two weeks of the transfer window.
Sunderland opted to offload Jack Diamond, Alex Bass, Nathan Bishop, Bradley Dack, Corry Evans and Ellis Taylor this summer.
Thankfully, a majority of their key players had all signed new contracts in the past year, but that wouldn’t prevent them from leaving.
Fans are expecting Jack Clarke to make his way to the Premier League, but are desperate to hold onto the likes of Dan Neil and Chris Rigg.
While Anthony Patterson is receiving heavy interest from the top flight, Jobe Bellingham is the one player who currently seems to be involved in a transfer tug-of-war.
The‘fantastic’ midfielder arrived at the Stadium of Light from Birmingham City last year and went onto score seven goals.
Sunderland have ‘turned down offers’ for Jobe Bellingham
Crystal Palace and Tottenham have already been in contact with the Black Cats over a potential deal, but have so far been priced out of a move.
Journalist Ed Aarons has reported that Sunderland have already ‘turned down’ offers from ‘several’ clubs for the teenager.
Aarons wrote on X: “Understand that Sunderland have turned down offers from Crystal Palace and several other clubs for Jobe Bellingham. Told the club’s owners remain determined to keep the teenage midfielder next season and will only consider selling for a fee in excess of £20m.”
Kristjaan Speakman deserves his plaudits
Kristjaan Speakman has taken a lot of stick this year after a disastrous decline on Wearside, with many pushing for him to leave the club.
However, if he is able to turn Jobe’s £1.5m fee into £20m, then that is some exceptional business.
Jobe was one of Sunderland’s better players last season and finished as their second top scorer, but he was far from good enough.
He clearly has a lot of potential and will definitely be a real star in the future, but for any top club to pay £20m plus right now would be a huge gamble and one that the Black Cats could really benefit from.
Ideally, Sunderland would be able to wait another year to see if his price tag increase even further, but if the club are to receive an offer over £20m this summer then they would be daft to reject it.