I'm genuinely excited about the prospect of selling Clarke, I think it opens up the market for us to add some serious quality. Would've preferred it earlier but if we can reinvest some of it in the remaining days of the window we'd still have a fairly big budget in January. I'm intrigued by what we would do with the money. Do we go big on a winger and look to directly replace Clarke? Do we go big on a central defender? Sign multiple squad players to raise the floor of the squad? Another forward outside of the ones linked? Think people miss that the club as a whole can be improved with a cash injection like this also. Facility upgrades, employee upgrades, new contracts for other players, able to offer higher wages to academy players who may have left in the past. We'll miss Clarke, everyone in the Championship would, but this is nothing but a serious opportunity to push on as a football club.
Mundle looked bang up for it through pre-season, seemed to be much sharper than what we saw last season. I think he'd step up if he was given a consistent run in this side, which is far more well drilled, with a solid overlapping full back behind him.
I feel like incomings are not wholly dependent on departures, things like squad size and transfer fee amount are obviously factors, but not the only story. If Clarke goes I suspect we already have his replacement on the books, but that the extra cash means we're able to move on targets who were previously a bit above budget. I don't see us paying £10m+ fees on anyone until we're a Premier League club.
I think by Saturday we’ll have at least one signed and a clear indication of what’s happening with the other
I'm not sure that Clarke will leave. Maybe he said he would wait before signing his contract extension to see if the clubs ambitions met his. A couple of quality signings like these two might just make him think that he has a great chance of going up with us and sign his extension. He can review in January. Whatever happens I believe exciting times are ahead.
Extend Jacks contract by a year on improved terms, if we dont go up shake hands next summer and get as much as we can. My dream scenario !
His medical was yesterday and the Zenit manager today said he had chosen to go to Sunderland as well as the CEO saying on Tuesday he's coming here
New contract on £45k and a £25m release clause if we stay in the championship would be a great option imo But it’s not my £45k to give!!
Their owner has all but confirmed he’s coming here tbf. Our own media has said it’s much further down the line than simic Makes me think club has briefed them to say isidor is sorted but Simic isn’t fully done yet
Agree with all of that in theory... But I've never seen it play out at my club. It's fear of the unknown. Jack Clarke makes me want to watch Sunderland play more than any player I can remember. I don't know what that's being replaced with, so whilst I understand it on an intellectual level, I can't be happy about it until I see the net result.
I agree with this a little bit. There have been talented players we've e had over the years who didn't live up to the hype and Jack Clarke isn't one of them. We know exactly what we get with Clarke and it's worth thinking about the importance of that.
