Championship bottom club Sunderland have managed to earn £6 million from the permanent sale of Jeremain Lens to Turkish Super Lig champions Besiktas.
Sunderland should be quite happy that they have obtained £6 million from the permanent departure of forgotten winger Jeremain Lens, as reported by the Chronicle.
The Dutch international has not featured for the Black Cats since the spring of 2016, spending the last two seasons on loan in Turkey with Fenerbahce and, currently, reigning Super Lig champions Besiktas.
In truth, Lens was a big disappointment at Sunderland. For all his ability, the winger never appeared fully invested in life on Wearside and that £8 million deal to sign him from Dinamo Zagreb looked like another substantial waste of money.
But at least Sunderland can take some positives out of the fact Besiktas have agreed to pay £6 million to make Lens’ loan permanent, despite the fact that he has only started eight league games this season.
If only Besiktas had agreed to pay the fee about a month ago. After all, Sunderland could have done with an influx of funds in the January transfer window as they only way they could invest in the squad was to sell a couple of their high-earning flops.
Instead, Sunderland failed to find a buyer for Lamine Kone or Jack Rodwell while Didier N’Dong joined Watford but only on loan. As a result, Chris Coleman could not spend a penny on a single player and some of his temporary signings, including Ashley Fletcher and Lee Camp, have struggled at the Championship’s bottom club.
£6 million from Lens would at least have given Sunderland some funds to play with. So yet more negatives can be taken from a deal which is, to be fair, quite a good one for the Black Cats.
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