UNIQUESeveral Premier League clubs are interested in the 23-year-old, so the Black Cats may have to let him go in the summer.
Star forward Jack Clarke will not sign a new contract at the Stadium of Light due to Sunderland’s refusal to compromise on their wage structure. This revelation will alert West Ham and other potential suitors ahead of the summer.
Lazio made a bid of almost £13 million, plus a further £3.5 million, for Clarke in January. Clarke’s current contract expires in two years, and the Black Cats turned it down. However, considering Sunderland’s approach to player trades, they might decide to consider bids for a player who is highly sought after by the Premier League during the off-season.
Sunderland’s 2024 campaign has started disastrously, sending Michael Beale packing 12 games into his two-and-a-half-year deal. A sequence of six straight losses ended any chance of qualifying for the playoffs, which was only halted by a weekend draw with Queens Park Rangers.
It raises a lot of concerns for the club’s owner, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, and prominent director of football Kristjaan Speakman, who designed the idea. Both have been entrusted with the responsibility of finding a new permanent manager. I have been informed that there is interest in Sheffield Wednesday’s Danny Rohl, Will Still, the manager of Reims, and an unidentified Belgian candidate on whom the club has run background checks prior to Beale’s appointment.
It is necessary to provide answers to more general queries on ambition, transfer spending, and whether the team’s reliance on younger players is hurting their chances of promotion.
Given that Clarke’s representative Ian Harte has informed me he has “no idea” what the future might contain, whoever accepts the position is likely to make it a point to explain Clarke’s position. Although he reiterated that Clarke “loves” the club, he left the door open for Sunderland to up their offer, saying that it is unlikely given their dedication to the salary structure.
“There’s not many people know this, but in Jack’s contract he had to play a few games at the start of this season to then get offered a new deal,” Harte said in an interview on behalf of FreeBets.com. A bargain was made available, however it was insufficient.
“We were pleased to sign a contract, but it was done earlier in the summer and hasn’t been discussed since.
“They’ve got a wage structure.” That’s something that many clubs have. I don’t think [Sunderland] wants to undermine any football player’s framework, so I don’t see it occurring.
Although Clarke’s ankle ligament damage has healed enough for him to take off his protective boot in recent days, Sunderland is unlikely to have much left to play for. Clarke will likely return before the season ends. The Black Cats are currently nine points from the drop zone and 13 points from of the play-offs—ten more than they were when Tony Mowbray was fired.
Undoubtedly, Mowbray’s exit marked a significant turning point. Harte expressed his displeasure with a choice that, in retrospect, Sunderland must have wondered why they made.
“I was gutted when Tony Mowbray got the boot, and I think most of the squad was gutted too,” he remarked.
“At that moment, I believe they were three points out of the playoffs. He’s an excellent manager who does a fantastic job of bringing in the younger players.
“His door was open with Jack and [Harte’s other client] Niall Huggins; he was a really good guy and a good manager, and I was sad to see him go.”