Tony Mowbray says Sunderland must do their level best to keep hold of star striker Ross Stewart - insisting the Scotland international has an 'amazing vehicle' for his talents on Wearside. Stewart has been sidelined since the end of August with a thigh injury and is not due to return until after the World Cup break.
After scoring 26 goals to fire the Black Cats to promotion last season and following that with five goals in his first seven outings in the Championship, his performances are understood to have attracted attention from a number of clubs in the Premier League.
The 26-year-old's contract is due to expire at the end of the season but Sunderland hold an option to extend by a further 12 months, although they would prefer to agree a new improved deal with the man they signed from Ross County almost two years ago. There is no doubt that Mowbray wants Stewart to stay - particularly as he has only been able to call upon him for one game before injury struck.
"I'm not really privy to it," Mowbray said of negotiations. "There are things I can influence and there are things I don't influence.
READ MORE: Tony Mowbray calls for consistency as Sunderland look to complete back-to-back wins
"I'm sure talks are happening. I think it's only right that this football club trys to keep its best players, and yet there has to be a middle ground somewhere, a negotiation.
"I don't know Ross' agent, I've never spoken to him, but I'm sure he thinks he has [PSG striker Kylian] Mbappe on his hands and whether we can get to a number that makes Ross feel warm in his stomach that we really love him and want him to stay and so he thinks that this is the platform for him to perform, if we can get there and he signs a new deal then fantastic. If we can't get there because it breaks all the structures and it's going to cause carnage behind the scenes because there are six other players who think 'hang on a minute, why is he earning that much and I'm earning this?'
"The club has to make those decisions and sometimes it can be really hard, but if you have to sell an asset then you have to sell an asset. That's why I believe you just have to have honesty, because the fans deserve honesty.
"The fans just want the best players but sometimes you can't have the best players if you haven't got the budget. Otherwise, three years down the line, your club is in financial difficulty, you're going into administration, you get docked 20 points, because you've broken the rules on finance trying to stretch yourself too far.
"I hope we can get something sorted out [with Stewart]. I believe he has got an amazing vehicle to progress his career. A team that creates chances, lots of technical players that can put the ball in the box in the right areas. If he scores 20 or 25 goals, the phone will ring off the hook.
"All he has to do is knock on the door of the manager or the head coach and say 'I know so-and-so has been asking after me, and I'd like to go'. Then we say 'right, well as long as it's £30m then we can do it'.
"They phone up and say we'll give you £28m and another £5m if we win the league, and we say 'deal'. I don't really know what cogs are turning behind the scenes and what conversations are being had, but having done this job for 20 years I am pretty sure the cogs will be turning and the conversations are being had."
As head coach, Mowbray is happy to let sporting director Kristjaan Speakman handle contract negotiations, and says the same applies when it comes to identifying targets for the January transfer window where head of recruitment Stuart Harvey takes the lead. He said: "I knew what I was coming into. I'm the head coach - it's the first time I've ever been head coach, I think.
"I remember leaving West Brom in 2009 and I'd left something in my office, I went back the next day to pick it up and the word 'manager' had been burned off my car parking space and the words 'head coach' were getting painted on. I was thinking 'head coach? What's this?'
"I love footballers, I love working with them, trying to get inside their heads and helping them work at their game and see how far they can get in their careers. It's great for me when I get all these calls from agents. My phone never stops ringing, agents saying 'transfer window is coming Tony, what do you want? What do you need?'
"There are a million agents out there and they've all got the best players for you. I just pass them Stuart Harvey's number now, I don't even need to talk to them! It's great.
"They try to develop relationships with you and become your pal but you know they're not your pal, they are just hoping they can do a deal that's going to be beneficial to them. I pass them to Stuart and then somewhere along the line, Stuart will have a list of £1m players, £500,000 players, £100,000 players, and free transfers, and we'll look at where we think the best value is for the football club.
"If I can give advice and thoughts of what we need and what will improve us, I do that in the meetings."
READ NEXT:
- Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray mulling a potential start for Ellis Simms this weekend
- Bailey Wright celebrates a Sunderland milestone, as his patience pays off
- Sunderland's Jewison Bennette included in Costa Rica's World Cup 2022 squad
- Tony Mowbray hails 'amazing' talent' Amad after his latest Sunderland goal
- Ellis Simms' return shows Sunderland just what they have missed during his absence
