Relegated club interested in retaining ex-Sunderland, Portsmouth, Cardiff City and Nottingham Forest man's services

Lee Johnson’s men failed to overcome Lincoln City over two legs in the League One play-off semi-final and now face a fourth straight season in the third tier of English football.

Here, we take a look gossip from around the internet following the clash against the Imps.

Here, we take a look at the latest Sunderland related transfer news and general talk from around the EFL that you may have missed today:

Southend United boss Phil Brown has said that the club are keen to keep ex-Sunderland player Greg Halford

The League Two club – who have just been relegated to the National League – brought the 36-year-old ace in back in December, agreeing a short-term deal until the end of the season.

That’s after the former ex-Black Cat offered to play for free as he looked to relaunch his career last November.

He took to Linkedin to offer his services to clubs last year and insisted he was willing to play without pay until January in a bid to return to the game.

The move paid off for Halfrord with Southend securing his services, although he could so nothing to to stop his club’s slide.

Halford spent two years on Wearside having been signed for the Black Cats by Roy Keane in 2007 for a reported fee of around £2.5million.

But he managed just nine appearances at the Stadium of Light before joining Wolves in 2009.

And while he struggled for game time at Sunderland, Halford has gone on to rack up over 500 career appearances for clubs such as Portsmouth, Cardiff City and Nottingham Forest.

Speaking to Southend Echo News, Brown said the club could look offer him a pay-as-you-play deal in the National League.

“I’ve said to him we would be getting an offer across to him but it would be based on time rather than money and it’s ongoing.

“What I mean by that is in the National League you can go game to game, month to month or whatever you want to.”

The Echo’s ‘Big Sunderland AFC Survey’: We want YOUR views on the 2020-21 campaign, what went wrong and plans for the future...

A message from the Football Clubs Editor

Our aim is to provide you with the best, most up-to-date and most informative Sunderland AFC coverage 365 days a year.

This depth of coverage costs, so to help us maintain the high-quality reporting that you are used to, please consider taking out a subscription to our new sports-only package here.

Your support is much appreciated. Richard Mennear, Football Clubs Editor