De Boer Has His Eye On Lens

Jeremain Lens has struggled to nail down a place in the Sunderland side since Dick Advocaat left the club earlier in the season and his future at the club has been in doubt since refusing to warm down after a home defeat to Watford, leaving Sam Allardyce infuriated.

After Lens had been disciplined, Allardyce encouraged the Dutch international to show his talent on the pitch but also left the door open for the winger to leave;

Get on the pitch and show us what you can do and prove to us all that you're the talent we expected with the performances that have been achieved in other parts of the world before, which obviously was why Dick [Advocaat] brought him here.

If he comes to me and tells me which club is going to buy him, then we will probably look at it and maybe come to a mutual agreement.

If him and his agent want to find a football club and say, 'Here we are, we want to go here and here is this amount of money' or more than we paid for him, then I may well say yes.

The 'club which is going to buy him' could well be Dutch giants Ajax, after manager Frank De Boer was asked if he still sees the winger as an option after he tried to sign him in the summer;

That seems to me, yes.

We would prefer a Dutchman, a leader in the group who speaks Dutch.

Lens spoke of his admiration for Ajax last month but any potential deal would be complicated by the player's wages, which are in the region of £80k per week according to De Boer, who is also chasing Dutch striker Bas Dost.