Transfer news: Champions League club launch £15m bid for Sunderland star - likelihood of deal assessed

Champions League club Lazio have reportedly launched a £15million bid for Sunderland star - but how likely is a deal to go through?

Here, we take a look at everything you need to know about Clarke's contract and transfer situation at Sunderland:

What is being reported about Jack Clarke and Lazio?

The Sun states that Lazio have entered the race for Sunderland winger Jack Clarke and made a fresh £15 million bid last night after the Black Cats' win against Stoke City.

Their report also claims Sunderland knocked back a similar bid from West Ham last week and are determined to keep hold of the former Leeds United player who joined Spurs in a £10million deal five years ago before making the move to the North East.

There is also understood to be interest in Clarke from France, Germany and other Premier League teams. Despite this, though, it is expected that the player will stay put in January given Sunderland's strong contractual position.

Clarke has netted 13 times for Sunderland in 29 Championship games so far this season, also chipping in with three assists and has cemented himself as a vital cog in Sunderland's attack.

What is the situation with Jack Clarke's contract at Sunderland?

Sunderland's contract talks with star man Jack Clarke remain at an impasse amid transfer speculation this window, The Echo understands.

Clarke signed a four-year deal with Sunderland back in 2022 following a successful loan stint, which means the attacker has two-and-a-half years left on his current contract, a situation leaving the Black Cats with some security.

However, the player's stellar performances this season and last have pushed talk of a new contract higher up the agenda and created transfer interest from Premier League clubs and teams in Europe. West Ham have been heavily linked with a move after Burnley had several bids rejected last summer.

The Echo understands that Sunderland and Clarke remain some way off in their negotiations in terms of the player's weekly wage, which was always likely to be the case once teams in the top flight started showing an interest. It is a cold hard fact that Premier League clubs can better anything Sunderland have offered so far.

This gridlock has caused some frustration given Sunderland have handed out new and improved higher wages to other players. But there are other issues to consider aside from wages.

Sunderland and Clarke's representatives are also some way apart when it comes to a buy-out clause, which have become commonplace in modern day football contract negotiations. Sunderland would prefer the buy-out clause to be a higher figure, whereas Clarke's camp would prefer that fee to be slightly lower.

Is Jack Clarke likely to leave Sunderland during the January transfer window amid the interest?

In short, as it stands, Clarke won't be leaving in January with Lazio's bed rejected. Sources have told The Echo that Clarke is happy at Sunderland and enjoying his football whilst insisting the player will not force a move during the January transfer window but that representatives are aware of his value and are highly unlikely to bring their wage demands down. The flip side to that is that Sunderland are also highly unlikely to up their wage offer given their present structure.

As previously mentioned Sunderland are protected with Clarke as the winger has plenty of time left on his deal meaning Sunderland don't have to sell. It is a possibility, though, that a big-money bid could force Sunderland's hand during the current window. Though, this scenario would be extremely hard to justify given Sunderland's over-reliance on Clarke for goals this season. To take the winger out of Michael Beale's team at this point would signal season suicide in the minds of supporters.

It also must be noted that Clarke signed for Sunderland for a fee of around £750k to £800k from Tottenham with a large portion of any future fee owed to Spurs. That fee, you would think, will have to be a large one given that Clarke is developing into a highly valuable commodity, one who has produced 36 goal contributions in 74 league appearances since Sunderland's return to the Championship 18 months ago.

What is the relationship between Jack Clarke and Kristjaan Speakman?

The Echo understands that the relationship between Sunderland's sporting director Kristjaan Speakman and Clarke’s camp remains cordial and is by no means damaged beyond repair despite the impasse. Indeed, there is some hope that a deal can be agreed but that would involve Sunderland breaking with the model to hand Clarke a contract on Premier League wages or close to it.

Speakman, though, has again stressed that Sunderland are in no need to sell players during the January transfer window. Speakman said the club had numerous offers on the table to try and strengthen their squad before the window closes next week, and despite significant speculation over the future of Jack Clarke in particular, the sporting director said he didn't any major exits last week

"I get the news about selling players but our ambition is to retain our best players, develop them, go higher in the league,” Speakman said. “I don’t see any of those external moves happening. We have not had anything externally to consider.

“I get the nervousness around selling players, I really do, because there are players there we all love, internally and externally. Our ambition is to retain our best players and keep evolving and developing the group. We want to keep performing, try to perform even better, and get to a higher place in the league. From that perspective, I don’t see any of those external movements happening. We haven’t had any discussions on any of those things and we haven’t had anything to really overly consider. So it’s business as usual from our perspective.

“I can never sit here and say that a player is never going to leave because Real Madrid could phone up and say, ‘There’s a lot of zeroes on this figure’. We’ve just got to try to ensure that fans understand that the ownership have the best intentions around building a team that we can keep improving. If the method behind it was to sell, then we would already have sold loads of players. We’ve had loads of opportunity to sell talent, so I’d like people to take comfort in the fact that that hasn’t happened on too many occasions."

What has Jack Clarke's agent Ian Harte said recently?

Former Leeds defender Ian Harte has worked with Clarke since the winger came through the ranks at Elland Road. Harte has gone on record multiple times saying his client is happy at Sunderland, despite interest from elsewhere.

“Jack is happy. He loves it at Sunderland,” Harte told The i in December when discussing Burnley's interest. “Obviously there was a club that came in over the summer to try and take him away.

"They put the offer into Sunderland, Sunderland declined and obviously Jack has to stay professional, he has to still go and put performances in and that’s what he’s done and that’s what he’ll continue to do.”

He added: “I’ve always said Jack is happy at Sunderland, he loves it at the club, he gets on with the group of players. I’m guessing Sunderland have a valuation, if that valuation is met then I’m sure they’ll be on to me and onto Jack saying ‘thanks for your time but it’s time to move on’ in the nicest way possible.”