Transfer gossip: Sunderland-linked 61-goal striker "expected" to leave Championship rivals in summer

Transcript

00:00Well, let's look forward to the summer, actually, because I did have a few players to ask you about, George.

00:05One was Emil Rees, as you say, linked with Sunderland.

00:09I think he's out of contract in the summer.

00:10From your understanding, was there much in that?

00:12Do you think he'll stay at Brest or has he sort of bailed on the goal now?

00:16Yeah, I think the expectation is he's going to be leaving, so we'll see what happens.

00:19It wasn't completely ruled out by the manager, because I think Emil Rees has enjoyed playing with him and working under him.

00:26But, yeah, the noises are that he fancies something new and won't be signing a new deal.

00:30So, be interested to see where he goes.

00:33Obviously, an ambitious striker.

00:35He's showed he can score at this level, so I think there'll be a few suitors.

00:39Maybe Sunderland will be one of them if they're still in this league next season.

00:42I'm not sure he's ready for the Premier League, although he might be useful as one of four in your attack kind of thing.

00:47Maybe he'll go abroad.

00:48So, yeah, we'll see.

00:50In terms of actual concrete Sunderland interests, I'm not too sure, to be fair.

00:55They might have had a look and had him on a list, like Sheffield United did, I think.

00:58He was an option for them, but then they signed Tom Cannon.

01:01So, maybe something a little bit like that.

01:04And is he still in the team and still playing under Higginbottom, despite the contract situation?

01:09Yeah, he is.

01:10In the first half of the season, he was kind of the regular, really, starting matches.

01:16And I think that's the good thing, that even though this is in the background and everyone kind of knows what's going on,

01:21he's still giving his all for the team kind of thing and being trusted to play because you never want it.

01:27He's been a really good player for Northend for four years and took a chance on him,

01:31spent a little bit of money to bring him over from Denmark.

01:33So, yeah, I mean, Preston has been good to Rhys and Rhys has been good to them and you'd never want it to end sour.

01:38So, thankfully, he's still available and contributing for the team.