Sunderland send transfer message over Jack Clarke and top stars' future

Sunderland interim boss Mike Dodds wants to keep the club's best players on Wearside, despite talk of summer transfer exits for the likes of Jack Clarke. The former Leeds United and Tottenham winger has been linked with a move away from the Stadium of Light after another imressive season in the Championship.

Many Black Cats fans fear Clarke and players such as Dan Neil, Dan Ballard and Anthony Patterson will be sold in the coming window, but while Dodds acknowledges that the new head coach will have a big input, he has outlined the club's hopes for the summer - with strengthening the squad, not weakening it, on the agenda.

Serie A giants Lazio enquied about Clarke back in January, with agent Ian Harte revealing back in February that he had plans for the 23-year-old. "There was a couple of bids that come in from Lazio," he said. "Sunderland didn’t feel like they wanted to sell the player in the January window, but hopefully this summer we’ll probably see Jack moving.”

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However for Dodds, it's all about building at Sunderland as the club look to add more depth to the squad before next season gets under way.

“We want to keep hold of our best players, recruit some more players and have a little bit more depth in a lot of the key areas of the football club," he said. "I am sure they’re priorities for everyone involved at the football club.”

“Having a really good pre-season, we’ve got six or seven weeks where I know we are going over to Spain which everyone is looking forward to. I think, obviously the new head coach will be an important addition to the summer as well.”