'Super important' Alex Pritchard could be offered Sunderland extension, says Michael Beale

Alex Pritchard could yet be offered a new deal at Sunderland, with Michael Beale describing the midfielder as ‘super important’ to the club.

Pritchard has just six months left on his current deal, and Sunderland made him available for transfer last summer alongside fellow experienced duo Danny Batth and Lynden Gooch.

Batth and Gooch moved on to Norwich and Stoke respectively, but there were no takers for Pritchard, which was surprising.

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Since then he has shown his quality, though, and he leads Sunderland for assists this season despite not playing as much as anyone would have liked.

The assumption has been that Sunderland will not renew his deal and allow him to walk away on a free transfer in the summer, but Beale says that is not necessarily the case.

"Yeah, those things are always going on in the background,” Beale said when asked about whether Alex Pritchard could get a new deal at Sunderland.

"I think when there's a change of manager, I think there's always a period where people want to see how the new relationships form.

“Alex is someone where we've worked with people we know in the past, so I was well-versed on him coming into the club and I've followed his career.

"He's someone who gets our football club, he's been there in the promotion season, and since I've been in he missed the first couple of games with illness and then was excellent when he came on against Rotherham, scored a fantastic goal against Preston and then was the most likely player for us [to do something] against Newcastle.

“He's super-important to us, and those things [contract talks] will go on in the background."

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