Khvicha Kvaratskhelia sets potential Sunderland exit in motion as Napoli chase £30m star

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Barely an hour goes by without the Sunderland faithful giving thanks to the football gods, oh so relieved that Tammy Watson’s 95th minute curler in the Championship play-off final landed on the right side of Michael Cooper’s goalposts.

As the Brighton-bound Watson secured ‘legend’ status on his final appearance in Sunderland colours, Premier League football returned to the Stadium of Light for the first time in nine largely traumatic years.

With that, the Black Cats’ hopes of retaining the players who got them there in the first place also received an almighty boost at the expense of a heartbroken Sheffield United and a puce-faced Chris Wilder.

Jobe Bellingham is expected to leave Sunderland for Germany still – Eintracht Frankfurt are battling Borussia Dortmund for his £25 million-rated signature – but there is renewed confidence on Wearside about Chris Rigg’s future.

Eliezer Mayenda is wanted by some of Europe’s big-hitters, too. The prospect of Premier League football should keep the one-time Paris Saint-Germain target in familiar surroundings.

Sunderland are also now operating from a position of considerable strength. Mercifully so, given the interest in Anthony Patterson, Wilson Isidor and Dennis Cirkin.

And as the Black Cats look to tie down Romaine Mundle to a new deal, the former Tottenham Hotspur starlet is likely to be far more receptive to any offers of an extension now that the chance to test himself against Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City and co looms on the horizon.

Napoli may complicate Sunderland’s Romaine Mundle hopes

Sky Sports reporter Keith Downie claims that both Nice and PSV Eindhoven are running the rule over Mundle.

Provided Nice avoid defeat in the third qualifying round, both of the wingers’ suitors will form part of a 32-team Champions League at the start of 2024/25.

“Sunderland plan to open talks with Romaine Mundle over a new contract after promotion to the Premier League,” Downie explains on X, the 22-year-old currently tied down until the summer of 2028. “Premier League clubs are keeping tabs on his progress. So too PSV and Nice.

“Sunderland are expected to hold talks with several key players over revised deals following promotion.”

A right-footed winger who likes to cut in from the left-hand side as Luton Town found out the hard way – Mundle scored one of the goals of the season during October’s 2-1 win at Kenilworth Road – Sunderland’s number 14 is likely to have been identified by PSV Eindhoven with Noa Lang’s potential departure in mind.

PSV Eindhoven likely view Mundle as Noa Lang’s successor

It is no secret that Lang – who was denied a move to Leeds United by Marcelo Bielsa while still at Club Brugge – wanted to secure a dream Serie A switch in January.

Napoli had a £21 million bid rejected on the final day of the winter window. As reporter Rik Elfrink explains, PSV were holding out for closer to £30 million.

Four months on, with Napoli also hitting the buffers in pursuit of Manchester United’s combustible Argentine Alejandro Garnacho, there remains a Khvicha Kvaratskhelia-shaped hole in the Scudetto-winners’ frontline.

A hole Lang could yet fill. Gazzetta dello Sport report that the mercurial Dutchman remains on Napoli’s radar.

There is a chance, then, that Kvaratskhelia’s £60 million switch to Paris Saint-Germain set in motion a chain of events which will see Noa Lang swap PSV for Napoli, and Romaine Mundle swap Sunderland for PSV.

A chance, yes. Though a chance Sunderland will hope has reduced considerably on the back of Tommy Watson’s Wembley winner.