KRISTJAAN SPEAKMAN has strongly denied that Sunderland are a ‘selling club’, and insists Jack Clarke will only leave if his departure is in the best long-term interests of the Black Cats.

Having assembled a squad of exciting youngsters, Speakman and the rest of the Sunderland hierarchy are braced for potential interest in a number of their players when the transfer window reopens next month.

Anthony Patterson, Dan Ballard and Dan Neil have all been linked with possible moves away from Wearside, while Clarke was the subject of a number of unsuccessful bids from Burnley in the summer.

Sunderland’s model is based around the purchase and development of young players who will rise in value during their time on Wearside, but Speakman is adamant that should not be misinterpreted as a mission statement that inevitably involves selling the club’s best players as soon as there is any external interest.

“I don’t know who first used the words ‘the model’,” said Sunderland’s sporting director, who was sitting alongside Michael Beale yesterday as the new head coach conducted his first press conference at the Academy of Light. “I think it might have been me and if it was, I should probably check myself because that has come back every (time).

“It’s just about having a really well-organised organisation at your football club. The selling the players part is a by-product of doing well, and that should be on the choice of the club in collaboration with the player at a given moment.

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“The football club has turned down numerous bids on numerous players over the last couple of years, and we have sold one player (Ross Stewart). I feel it is a slight misrepresentation around the direction of travel and what the objective of the club is because, if we were a selling club, we would have made loads of sales - and we haven’t.”

Clarke’s future has been the subject of especially intense speculation in the last few weeks, with Burnley considering a new approach when the window reopens and Brentford also being heavily linked with a potential move for the 23-year-old winger.

Speakman admits every situation will be judged on its individual merits, but is adamant there is no desire to weaken a squad that has realistic hopes of winning promotion this season.

“When players do really, really, well and they attract the attention of the Premier League outfits then naturally that is going to be a difficult moment,” he said. “But our ownership has been rock-solid around that, and I don't think we will be looking to trade players when we have that opportunity to get promoted.”

And if and when the Sunderland hierarchy do decide to move a player on, it will be with the intention of reinvesting funds in order to make the overall squad stronger.

“That’s always been our strategy from the start,” continued Speakman. “That by-product from doing well does allow you to trade and one of the most efficient methods of getting to the top of our league, with more spending power to invest in whatever you want to invest in - facilities, people, players - is to trade players. But it won't ever be against our number one objective, which is to get promoted and grow the club.”

To that end, talks have already taken place about possible incomings during next month’s transfer window.

While Sunderland brought in four new centre-forwards in the summer – Nazariy Rusyn, Eliezer Mayenda, Luis Hemir and Mason Burstow – all four are still waiting for their first senior goal for the Black Cats.

Beale accepts that one of his key priorities will be to try to get at least one of the club’s existing centre-forwards up and running in front of goal, but Speakman and the rest of Sunderland’s recruitment team have also been discussing the option of bringing in another striker next month.

“We certainly want to convert some of our dominance into more goals,” said Speakman. “If you look at the team that Michael took at Rangers, you are talking about a high-possession team that had to break down teams that played a low block, so there are a lot of similarities in terms of some of the more recent teams Michael's teams have played against.

“From a coaching standpoint he can come and sprinkle some more ideas about how we can be more effective there. From a transfer window perspective, the club has always invested either in the short, but certainly in the medium and long-term, around trying to improve the quality.

“We’ll continue to approach that, and we have been on with that piece of work since the (summer) transfer window closed and that will run alongside everything we have done in recent weeks.”