Sunderland face losing another one of their fan favourites this summer.
Sunderland supporters have already accepted the impending exit of star man Jack Clarke, with the 15-goal winger heavily linked with a £20m plus move to the Premier League.
The exciting breakthroughs of many of their young stars have unsurprisingly resulted in a lot of attention from the top flight, with the likes of Anthony Patterson and Dan Neil also admired by some top clubs.
Sunderland did ensure to tie down a number of their key players to new contracts over the last year, with Trai Hume, Anthony Patterson, Patrick Roberts, Dan Ballard, Luke O’Nien, Aji Alese and Dan Neil all putting pen to paper over the last 12 months.
However, that doesn’t mean they won’t leave if the club receive a decent offer. It could just mean they can rake in more cash than they previously would have.
The Black Cats will still be desperate to keep some of their favourites, but it could be difficult to keep out interest from some of Europe’s biggest clubs.
Trai Hume wanted by five clubs this summer
While Jack Clarke was the subject of interest from Lazio in January, Trai Hume has now also been linked with a move to Serie A.
According to the Belfast Telegraph, Napoli are one of five clubs interested in signing Hume this summer.
Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Leeds United and Leicester are also said to be keen on snapping up the defender, who has committed the most tackles in the Championship this season.
It’s unclear how much these clubs would be willing to spend on Hume, though it is likely that the club would demand significantly more than transfermarkt’s £4.3 million market value.
The full-back has become a fan favourite on Wearside and is one of the first names on the team-sheet every week.
Will the defender jump ship?
Hume signed a new deal with the club in June and admitted that he was ‘looking to play games’, which could potentially tempt him to stay at Sunderland if offered the chance to leave.
However, the Northern Ireland international is certainly already good enough to be starting for most of the interested clubs, while he could even be offered the chance to play in the Champions League with Aston Villa.
Losing their biggest stars this summer will be agonising for Sunderland, but Trai Hume could well be one of the most heartbreaking. Keeping hold of him this summer is vital to their chances of going up next time round.