Sunderland player getting ‘further and further away’ – Sounds like white flag on transfer

There’s been a trend over the past couple of years for Serie A clubs to look at talented youngsters in the Championship and try to secure them on the cheap.

Taking players from Serie B isn’t so expensive, but it’s repeatedly found out by big Italian clubs that it’s not quite the same with the Championship and not so easy to bully sides from a financial perspective.

This appears to be what’s happening with Lazio and Jobe Bellingham, with Tuesday’s edition of Corriere della Sera reporting the player is getting ‘further and further away’ from the Rome club.

That means a transfer is slipping out of their reach, which could be due to the reported asking price from the Black Cats. Repeated Italian reports have said Sunderland want €15m for Bellingham, and Lazio were waiting for that figure to drop.

It did not, and now they’re edging away from the Sunderland youngster.

Lazio travel to England today to face Southampton in a pre-season friendly on Wednesday evening. They’ll train at Southampton’s facilities after that, before flying to Spain for a friendly against Cadiz on Saturday evening.