Bad news for Ballard: Sunderland planning new bid for “unreal” £24m talent

Sunderland fans are living in a dreamland at the moment.

For so many years, the Black Cats had struggled to get back up to the Premier League, with a dire four-season stay in League One very much the Wearside outfit at their depressing worst

Now, however, Sunderland look ready to compete with the very best in the Premier League, having spent a combined £141.5m on brand new signings this summer, with all that spending immediately paying off when the Black Cats brushed West Ham United aside on the opening day with ease in a 3-0 win.

It will be about following up that stunning victory with more and more wins, as plenty of new signings are also tipped to join Regis Le Bris’ camp before the transfer window closes.

Sunderland planning new £24m bid

12 new signings may well already be through the door on Wearside, but that number looks set to increase.

Le Bris and Co. could soon be splashing the cash even more by landing Brian Brobbey and Abdul Fatawu in quick succession, with the Ajax striker worth around the £17m mark, alongside his Leicester City counterpart’s steep valuation of £30m.

Of course, some speculative transfer talk – as we head very close to September’s early deadline – should be taken with a pinch of salt, but one rumour that kept floating about earlier in the window has come back into conversation again.

As per Italian outlet TuttoMercatoWeb, Sunderland are not giving up on acquiring the services of Bologna titan Jhon Lucumi to strengthen the centre-back department.

The site states that Sunderland is planning to lodge a new bid for the Colombian that should exceed the £24m mark, having seen their advances rejected by the Serie A outfit in the past.

If they were to finally pick up their desired centre-back target, this might well be bad news for Daniel Ballard moving forward, despite his colossal presence on the opening day against Graham Potter’s flimsy Hammers.