Sunderland made Jhon Lucumi a key summer target but were unable to get a deal over the line

Bologna will offer defender Jhon Lucumí a new contract in the coming weeks after Sunderland's failed to bid to sign the 27-year-old defender.

Lucumí emerged as a key target for Sunderland through the latter stages of the summer, but the expiration of a release clause in the Colombia defender's contract significantly strengthened the Serie A club's position. Having already sold key players in the summer window, including centre back Sam Beukema, the club made clear they would not sell.

Comments from CEO Claudio Fenucci stressing that point drew a public statement from the player's agent urging the club to reconsider, but no resolution was found.

Fenucci has now spoken to Italian media this week and confirmed their intention to offer him a new deal to ward off future interest.

"We're pleased with all the players who stayed; they represent the foundation of last year's success," Fennuci told tuttomercato.

"We've lost two important players, in addition to the others who left who had made a contribution. However, Lucumi remains, and like others, he had offers. We had stated that he would stay with us, now when he returns from the national team, we'll talk to him about a possible contract renewal and be able to give him a fair financial reward."

Lucumí is currently contracted until the summer of 2027. It is far from clear whether he will agree to an extension. Sunderland eventually accepted defeat in their bid to sign the defender and brought in Lutsharel Geertruida. The Netherlands international joined on an initial loan deal from RB Leipzig, though there is an option to make that permanent for a fee of around £18 million next summer. That means Sunderland could in theory revisit their interest in Lucumí, should he not extend at Bologna.

Lucumí has remained involved with the Bologna team at the start of the season, and drew praise from his head coach for his performance in coming off the bench to secure a 1-0 win over Como before the current international break.

What Kristjaan Speakman said about Sunderland's business on transfer deadline day

"In our planning, we had some key positions to make sure we got sorted out first," Speakman said.

"Once we were comfortable we had those positions in place, with Lutsha [Geertrudia] for example, then that [winger] was going to be our next move. Luckily, we were able to do that within the timeframe. It was really tight with it being the end of the window – there was literally minutes to spare, really. But we feel he’s a really important part of the group moving forward. Letting Patrick go – a wide right, left footer – we felt we needed to replace that type of profile. He’s got experience at the top level, so we felt it was a good one for us to move on considering the quality of the player and the type of deal it was.

"Brian [Brobbey] is a player who we’ve been tracking all summer. There’s one or two other players that we’ve been tracking too, and always in the transfer window, it’s about timing. For us, the timing of being able to take Brian and the timing of our position with Chelsea and with Marc [Guiu] meant that we could agree to it. We’re really disappointed on one hand because we really liked Marc. But at the same time, we also really like Brian and we’re really pleased that Brian’s here because we think he’s a player for now and a player for the future."

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