West Ham & Lazio told how much it’ll take to sign £20million Sunderland’s Jack Clarke by Thursday

underland look as though they could finally lose Clarke this month, after a year of heavy transfer speculation linking the youngster with a move away from the Stadium of Light. The 23-year-old is enjoying another standout season in the Championship with 13 goals and three assists to his name in 29 appearances; four more goals than he managed in the entirety of the last Championship campaign. Ahead of deadline day, the likes of Crystal Palace and West Ham are being heavily linked, with Lazio now making a late push to sign him. TEAMtalk report that the Italian outfit have made a £15million bid for the Englishman, but that falls well short of the Black Cats‘ valuation of the player.

Michael Graham says Sunderland want ‘north of’ £20million for Jack Clarke Responding to the Lazio rumours, journalist Michael Graham confirmed the news, but added that Sunderland want more than £20million for their star man; but even that is unlikely to tempt Sunderland into selling. Interest from all of Crystal Palace, West Ham, and now Lazio, with the latter having a bid on the table, shows the volume of genuine interest in Clarke, which will all be enticing to the player as he looks for a return to top flight football. But he missed out on a move in the summer and didn’t let his performance levels drop, and should he miss out again this month, fans needn’t worry about Clarke losing form ahead of the business end of the season. The Black Cats currently sit in 7th place of the Championship table; level on points with Coventry City in 6th but behind on goal difference.

And having Clarke in the side greatly bolsters the chances of that happening, and with the Sunderland owners no doubt keen to sign Beale succeed after making the appointment, and keen to get Sunderland back into the big time, they’ll surely keep Clarke until the summer at least. But like Graham says, missing out on promotion will all but seal Clarke’s summer exit, whilst earning promotion could well keep him at the club and possibly tempt him into signing a new deal; his current contract expires in 2026.

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