Sunderland still need to ship out some sh*t to bring in recruits... starting with Jack Rodwell?

The transfer window shuts on Thursday night - in case you didn’t know. Sunderland’s squad is already creaking and needs some additional bodies - in case you didn’t know.

But according to seasoned observers, the Black Cats still need to ship out some overpaid deadwood before fresh faces can be enticed to the Stadium of Light. The trouble is, to date no one has wanted them.

And who can really blame potential suitors for not fancying the likes of Papy Djilobodji, Wahbi Khazri or Lamine Kone - to name but three - whose attitude and application have been called into question repeatedly in recent months?

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Something has to give and we may yet see an unexpected departure or two in the coming hours and days. West Ham seemingly have no interest in Didier Ndong, despite last week’s claims, but the Gabonese international is one of those players Sunderland remain vulnerable to losing - as Simon Grayson would put it.

The Black Cats boss has changed his tune subtly as August has progressed. From his phone supposedly ringing relentlessly with players desperate to join the Wearside rebuild earlier in the month, Grayson has reverted to talking up his pedigree of coaching the best out of what he has in the wake of Saturday’s dismal defeat to Barnsley.

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The 47-year-old has suggested the next few days will be “busy” but he tempered that by adding that there may yet be little concrete movement. And that’s because Sunderland still need to shift some bodies to bring in cash and free up additional space on the wage bill.

How much is debateable. Wahbi Khazri might fetch £5m to £6m with a fair wind behind the bidding, but considering he was being touted around for something close to that amount 12 months ago, the Black Cats will need to offer him out with increasingly favourable terms to tempt any buyer who has followed his progress since last summer.

As for the others, who knows. But shopping at the Stadium of Light this week is likely to be a buyer's market from a club increasingly desperate to clear some stock.

One player who has been linked with a hugely surprising exit over the weekend is Jack Rodwell. The midfielder, now synonymous with Sunderland failings, has been touted as a target for Sporting Lisbon should the Portuguese champions sell William Carvalho to West Ham - or to anyone else for that matter.

That deal - linking the 25-year-old to the Hammers - looks likely to go down to the wire yet, but an exit for Rodwell is certainly in everyone’s interests on Wearside after the former England international’s depressing three years at the Stadium of Light - which in truth feels like longer.

Rodwell is supposedly Sunderland’s highest earner. The Black Cats were so keen to lure him to the Stadium of Light in 2014 that they waived the usual insertion of a relegation clause to reduce his £60k-plus wages upon the drop - which duly followed three seasons after he first joined then-manager Gus Poyet’s outfit.

It was David Moyes who revealed the details of Rodwell’s pay - an unseemly disclosure in truth by a manager desperate to pass blame for Sunderland’s woes on to any previous incumbent he could identify.

The net result merely serves to expose the dressing room pay disparity which now exists at the club and Rodwell’s departure would make sense for that reason alone.

And that’s before we consider the enormous footballing reasons to dispatch with the 26-year-old injury plagued ex-Evertonian who managed 38 games in a Sunderland shirt without featuring on the winning side to worldwide infamy.

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How true the Sporting Lisbon rumour is - who knows. But at worst it may be a tale planted by the player’s agent to try and engineer him an exit from the Stadium of Light. Good news perhaps.

Either way, following Saturday’s successive league defeat and the harsh reality now fully dawned that this half-rebuilt Sunderland squad look unlikely to trouble the top six in the Championship, supporters are looking for a lift, whilst in truth anticipating little.

Such has been the dampening of expectation on Wearside, the final stages of the summer transfer window will set no hearts a racing. It really is crap, but jettisoning a few of the shit faces who still inhabit the club will come as a bonus.