SUNDERLAND and Newcastle are on alert after West Ham boss Glenn Roeder's admission that he has lost his battle to keep Trevor Sinclair.

In the wake of his England debut against Sweden last Saturday, £10m-rated winger Sinclair hit out at the Hammers, claiming he had been misled about their ambitions.

Sinclair claims he was left with no alternative but to demand a transfer after key players Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard were sold and manager Harry Redknapp was sacked.

Sunderland boss Peter Reid has already seen a £7m bid for Sinclair rejected, while Newcastle counterpart Bobby Robson has also registered his interest.

Former Newcastle skipper Roeder, now steeling himself for an inevitable parting of the ways, said: "I haven't sat down with Trevor and discussed the problem with him since he came back from the England game.

"But his comments would certainly suggest he's not going to change his mind.

"That's a pity because Trevor is an important player to us, but I hope he agrees that we have a right to demand a fair and reasonable fee for him.

"Although the club has officially turned down Trevor's transfer request, interested clubs who match our valuation would be allowed to talk to him.''

Meanwhile, West Brom have launched a scathing attack over Sunderland's role in the breakdown of Danny Dichio's move to the Hawthorns.

Furious Albion chairman Paul Thompson claims the Black Cats scuppered a proposed £1m deal by refusing to settle up the 27-year-old's contract to offset the striker taking a pay cut to join Gary Megson's side.

Thompson said: "Danny's agent was totally reasonable throughout and Danny was prepared to take a wage cut.

"But he couldn't be expected to sacrifice the difference between our offer and the remaining three years of his Sunderland contract - there was a very big gap."

Coventry and Wolves have since entered the running for Dichio after the England Under-21 international's Hawthorns switch fell through despite a successful spell on loan.

Thompson added: "I rang the Sunderland chairman in a last attempt to do a deal and I indicated we were ready to make payments up to £1m.

"But I said there was no point in agreeing a fee unless Sunderland would make a payment to Danny to terminate his contract, which is commonplace.

"I was told Sunderland wouldn't make any payment to Danny unless we added the whole of the payment to the fee which we paid.

"That would have required us to pay a fee well in excess of £1.5m and this we cannot do."