TONY Mowbray insists Sunderland's promotion hopes this season don't solely depend on whether the Black Cats can keep hold of in-demand Jack Clarke in January.

Clarke was a wanted man in the summer window, with Sunderland knocking back multiple bids from Burnley.

The former Leeds United and Tottenham winger has since enjoyed a blistering start to the Championship season and is joint-top of the division's goal charts, with Premier League clubs closely monitoring the 22-year-old.

Brentford and Burnley have both been heavily linked in recent months and Sunderland will be braced for bids when the winter window opens in the new year.

Given that Clarke is contracted to Sunderland through until 2026, the Black Cats are in a position of real strength. Mowbray has praised Clarke for the way he's reacted after a summer of transfer uncertainty, and Sunderland's head coach is unsurprisingly desperate to keep the winger on Wearside.

But if a bid lands in January that Sunderland deem too good to turn down, Mowbray insists Sunderland can still challenge for promotion in the second half of the season.

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“I would hope we would still be in contention if we lost him," he said.

"I think you have to build structure within our teams and it’s why you have players on the fringe. Hopefully, when they get their chance, they will help the team. You need players like that to continue the progress of the team. I cannot sit here and say, we can just replace Jack Clarke with Jewison Bennette for example because he is still a young boy who is learning the game.

“And it’s unlikely he is going to score goals at the ratio Jack does.

“But if you want to make the play-offs, you probably have to score between 60 and 70 goals. Who is going to score them because at this moment Jack is leading the way for us in that department? But I would not expect a total wind change in how we play if we did lose him.

"We would find someone else and we would deliver the same messages we are doing now. We are trying to create an identity so that if an individual is suspended or whatever, you do not see much change.

“You train your team every day, not just 11 individuals. That means the back-ups know exactly what we do and how we do it in the same way as the player in front of him. Hopefully, you do not see the gap too much if you do make changes.

“It is all about the collective. That is why you have squads.”