An update has emerged on Sunderland defender Bailey Wright, regarding Wigan's interest in his services.

What's the talk?

According to Alan Nixon of The Sun, the Latics are interested in signing the 28-year-old colossus before the end of the transfer window next month.

The Black Cats' league rivals have already signed Charlie Wyke and Max Power from the Stadium of Light on free transfers and are now after the club's centre-back.

Fans would hate it

Kristjaan Speakman must avoid a Black Cats nightmare with Wright this summer.

He cannot allow one of their direct League One opposition, Wigan, to come in and swoop him up, especially given that they have already signed the club's top scorer, Wyke, from last season already.

That is already one disaster waiting to happen.

Fans would be furious if they let one of their best players leave to go and strengthen a team that could end up ousting them in the promotion race.

Wright started 35 of Sunderland's League One matches last season and averaged an excellent WhoScored rating of 6.94. The only players with higher scores were Wyke, Aiden McGeady and Luke O'Nien, with the latter two still at the club.

This highlights that the centre-back is one of Lee Johnson's top performers and that losing him would be a gigantic blow ahead of the 2021/22 campaign.

He won 4.3 aerial battles per game, whilst also making 4.6 clearances and 0.6 blocks to showcase his defensive ability at the back. The rock-solid battler proved himself to be a quality defender at this level.

Upon the Australian's arrival at the club last year, Kevin Phillips compared him to Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk in terms of his importance to the side.

He told Football Insider:

“He’s been a great signing.

“I don’t know the player, but I just get the feeling that he’s a leader and a voice in the dressing room.

“Sometimes the manager can only say so much and then you want of your senior experience players to pipe up and put a few people in their place and give encouragement and be a leader. He seems like that.

“The stats just show what an important player he is. He’s almost to Sunderland what van Dijk is to Liverpool at the moment with those incredible stats.”

Therefore, fans would be devastated if the club sold the £13k-per-week powerhouse to Wigan in the coming weeks, because he is a top player who is crucial to what Sunderland want to do next season; get promoted.

This is why Speakman must reject all offers for the defender and ensure that he is still playing in red and white in League One next term.

AND in other news, SAFC dealt blow over 23 y/o gem who's a “breath of fresh air”, fans will be gutted...