Kristjaan Speakman discusses interest in key Sunderland players and the club's current stance

Striker Ross Stewart is being tracked by a number of clubs as his remarkable rise continues, while youngsters such as Dan Neil also have a number of clubs monitoring their progress.

Speakman admitted that not winning promotion might have changed the picture with some players and their future, but says that moving into the Championship fellow clubs knew that the Black Cats were not prepared to part with their top talent.

While the club's model for growth in the long term does mean selling players at some stage, Speakman was clear that this was not the moment.

He also believes the club showed over the summer the willingness to invest in the playing squad, providing those players fit the longer-term philosophy.

"The market has been fairly quiet over the duration," Speakman said.

"Considering we are a newly-promoted team out of League One, I would guess that we are probably the third, fourth, fifth, highest net spenders in this league.

"If you look at the level of investment going into our club, there are probably not many that are competing without the income revenue.

"That's where the market is at, and that's fantastic for us because we think we have some really talented players and naturally people will be interested in them but I also think there is an understanding externally that we are not a selling club," he said.

"I'm sure there are people who would have loved to have put a bid in for X, Y or Z, I know there are a lot of people who have a lot of admiration for some of our players, but they probably thought that there was no point in phoning us up because they knew what the answer was going to be, and that's a really good progression for Sunderland."

Blackburn Rovers are, according to The Sun, targeting Ross Stewart as a long-term replacement for Ben Brereton Diaz. Sunderland have been in talks with Stewart over a new long-term deal since the Spring but as of yet have not reached an agreement.