Exclusive: Important details of Josh Maja’s transfer and departure from Sunderland revealed

Sunderland have this morning confirmed the departure of top scorer Josh Maja, who has joined Ligue 1 side Bordeaux after a long and protracted saga over the player’s future.

Whilst various fees regarding how much the club are set to receive have been bandied around over recent days, it’s our understanding that the club are only set to receive around £1.5m from the deal - and the receipt of any future installments is dependent on a variety of factors and clauses which, of course, depend upon how successful Maja is over in France.

The kicker, however, is that the fee itself may not actually be placed back into the club’s coffers due to an outstanding payment that has still yet to be made to Bordeaux for the signing of Wahbi Khazri, who was brought to Wearside in the January transfer window of 2016 by Sam Allardyce.

Sunderland still owe Bordeaux a sum which is almost as much as they’re set to receive for Maja, meaning that the fee will not be available to Jack Ross and the club’s recruitment team to immediately inject back into the club.

That said, we believe that the club are still committed to bringing new players in before the window shuts, and that was always the case even before Maja departed.

With just five days left until the transfer window closes, the club are faced with needing to replace not one, but two forwards - Jerome Sinclair’s departure following his return to Watford means that we still need to ensure the void that he left behind is also filled.