Unwelcome? Certainly. Unexpected? Hardly.

Sunderland fans this week received the news they had been bracing themselves for all summer with star man Jack Clarke at the centre of late-window transfer interest.

Those same supporters had long been praying that Clarke would sign a new contract on Wearside.

With no sign of that, more recently they had taken to crossing their fingers that Clarke’s scintillating form would somehow go unnoticed by teams in the top flight.

Fat chance!

Instead, Premier League newcomers Ipswich Town have decided to test the water with a reported bid of £15m plus add-ons.

The Tractor Boys’ offer surely represents no more than an opening gambit for a player regarded as one of the best outside the Premier League and who still has two years remaining on his contract.

After all, Burnley tried and failed to land the winger last summer for a similar fee - and that was before Clarke enjoyed the best and most prolific season of his career.

But Ipswich may well return with an improved offer and, now that their interest has been made public, it may also smoke out other interested clubs.

In the end, we all know that money talks. Every player has his price.

If and when someone is willing to meet Sunderland’s valuation, Clarke will be allowed to leave.

That is how the Black Cats’ ‘model’ works, after all.

The big question is: what then?

RECOMMENDED READING:

Can Sunderland rely on January acquisition Romaine Mundle to fill Clarke’s sizeable shoes? Will summer signing Ian Poveda prove to be the natural successor? Or would they have to go back into the market and spend some of their transfer windfall on a replacement?

It will be a huge decision for owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and sporting director Kristjaan Speakman.

And it is a call they must not get wrong because it is no exaggeration to say that Clarke has been Sunderland’s talisman ever since the the club returned to the Championship two seasons ago.

Nine goals and 12 assists in his first full season on Wearside meant he was integral to the club’s sixth-placed finish and qualification for the play-offs.

His 15 goals and four assists last term were arguably even more important, almost certainly saving the club from a catastrophic relegation after a botched summer recruitment drive and disastrous revolving-door approach to the head coach’s role left Sunderland in freefall in the final weeks of the season.

Clarke has picked up this season exactly where he left off, with one goal and one assist to his name already after only two league games.

But if - and it is still an if - he moves on, it will change the tenor of Sunderland’s transfer window.

Suddenly it will less about whether the club has strengthened on its existing foundations and more about whether the club goes into September with a suitable successor for Clarke.

Last season was defined by Sunderland’s failure to sign a replacement for striker Ross Stewart before allowing him to join Southampton on deadline day.

They cannot afford to allow history to repeat itself with Clarke.

====================

Sunderland’s fine start to the season under new head coach Regis Le Bris continues, with their opening day win at Cardiff City followed by last weekend’s emphatic 4-0 home victory against Sheffield Wednesday.

As I wrote last week prior to that game against the Owls, Sunderland had started a league season with back-to-back wins only once since 1980.

So, ahead of tomorrow’s home game against early-season leaders Burnley, I know what you’re wondering: when did they last start a league season with three wins on the spin?

Excluding the Wartime League, you would have to go back almost a century to the summer of 1925 for that - when they actually began their First Division campaign with four wins in a row, and ended up finishing third.