Jim Rodwell reveals whether Sunderland have offered contracts to potential signings yet

But the Black Cats’ chief executive believed the club owed it to their out of contract players to make a quick decision.

The Black Cats announced their retained list ahead of the 2020/21 season earlier this week, with Chris Maguire, Tom Flanagan and Jon McLaughlin all offered fresh terms at the Stadium of Light.

Duncan Watmore, Alim Ozturk, Ethan Robson, Jack Baldwin and Joel Lynch will leave the club.

Rodwell says clubs are having to try and plan despite the challenges and huge uncertainty facing clubs in the summer transfer window.

With the prospect of salary caps coming to League One, and the possibility of further budgetary constraints if fans are excluded from stadiums for an extended period, it has proved difficult for clubs to plan for their summer business.

To that degree, Sunderland are yet to offer terms to potential new signings – but Rodwell was keen to ensure that those out of contract saw their futures resolved quickly, believing it was the ‘fair’ thing to do.

“We've offered contracts to three of the guys, and at the moment we’re taking a punt,” he said, speaking to BBC Newcastle’s Total Sport.

“We haven’t offered contracts to anyone other than people in our squad currently.

“You have to tell them something – and I suppose the easiest decision would just have been to say to the guys that we would have a conversation with them in a month, two months.

“Those players, if there’s anyone else who is prepared to offer them a deal, they’re quite within their rights to do that anyway.

“But we thought the fair thing to do was that for the players we really saw as part of our future and trying to get promoted next season, we thought all we could do was offer them a contract.

“It was as simple as that, but we’re fishing in the dark to be honest with you. It is a little bit of a punt.”