Sunderland acknowledge they are likely to face a battle to hang on to star man Charlie Wyke, who has been linked with a move to Nottingham Forest.
The striker’s current deal runs out this summer and he is said to have a string of teams interested in securing his services as a free agent.
Along with the Reds, Championship rivals Cardiff City, Middlesbrough and Millwall are reportedly keen, as well as Scottish giants Celtic, Russian outfit CSKA Moscow and Ipswich Town.
Announcing their retained list last week, the Black Cats said they remained in talks with Wyke about his future at the club.
But sporting director Kristjaan Speakman admits there will be admiring glances towards all of their out-of-contract players, with Aiden McGeady, Denver Hume and Luke O’Nien all offered fresh terms as discussions continue to take place with Wyke.
Speakman is hoping for a swift resolution.
"We've been in discussions with those guys and their representatives,” he told the official website.
“It's always going to be a difficult period because they are players that have done well for us, hence we want to re-engage them.
“But obviously because they've done well for Sunderland, there's other people going, 'these guys have done well for Sunderland, and we would also be interested in them'.
"It's going to be a piece of work which we want to try and reduce the timeline as quick as possible, and therefore it helps us on our platform for where we're going and who we might be looking at in the future months.
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"We feel they can all contribute to the Sunderland of the future, and therefore hopefully we'll be able to get them over the line.”
Wyke finished as his team’s top scorer during the campaign just gone, netting 31 goals in all competitions as Sunderland’s promotion dreams were shattered in the League One play-off semi-finals.
According to BristolLive, Bristol City are not one of the teams pursuing the forward, despite previous reports to the contrary.
