Mike Dodds has fired a stark warning to Premier League clubs looking to snap up their prized ‘assets’.
Sunderland have had huge success bringing in young players and developing them into real superstars, with their very youthful side taking them all the way to the play-offs last season.
With the Black Cats failing to earn promotion themselves, they have now become accustomed to receiving plenty of interest in some of their biggest stars.
The club already did very well to palm off bids for Jack Clarke in both the summer and January windows, but it looks increasingly likely that they will have to part ways with the winger this time.
Similarly, the likes of Trai Hume, Anthony Patterson and Dan Neil have all attracted interest from the Premier League, and Sunderland certainly won’t want to lose all of their top players.
Sunderland have a ‘huge amount of power’ now
While it seems unlikely that the club will refuse some of their players a move away if that’s what they want, Mike Dodds has admitted that they are still in a very good position.
Speaking in today’s press conference via Sunderland Echo, the interim coach said: “I do think we have a core of a very good team that we do feel need a little bit of support. You support that core and I think you’re not a million miles away from being a very strong Championship side.
“All those assets, I don’t like calling players assets, they are all under long-term contracts so the club has a huge amount of power, if there is any anxiety about any players leaving, that if anyone did want to come and take our successful players it will have to be at a premium.”
Sunderland can’t get distracted by the pound signs
Pretty much all of Sunderland’s key players have signed a new contract in the past year, so while it doesn’t mean they will all necessarily stay, it does mean they will make plenty of money from their exits.
I accept that we won’t be able to keep everyone, but it would be very frustrating to see us sell more than just a couple of our biggest names.
We can rake in all the cash that we want, but that doesn’t make it any easier to replace the likes of Dan Neil.
The midfielder has the potential to become a regular for the England national team and will likely play for a top Premier League club. We could make £20 million of his exit and we still aren’t going to convince someone of his quality to come to Wearside, because they would be higher than Championship standard.
Sunderland need to balance out selling off their prized assets for money and keeping hold of others, because if not, we could end up in an even worse position than this season.