Peterborough United director of football Barry Fry has claimed that Sunderland felt that they could bring in a better striker than Charlie Wyke before seeing him leave on a free, during an exclusive interview with Football League World. 

The future of the striker at the Stadium of Light was something which dominated headlines for quite some time in the North East before everything came to a head recently.

Wyke chose to sign for the club's Sky Bet League One rivals Wigan Athletic, meaning that the Black Cats lost a player who had scored the best part of 30 goals for absolutely nothing.

Lee Johnson and co will now be looking for a new man up top to score the goals to get them promoted, with Sunderland now preparing for their fourth successive season in the third tier after losing out in the play-off semi finals to Lincoln City.

Speaking recently to FLW about Wyke's departure from the club, Fry had this to say on the matter in hand:

"Well the only thing that I can think of on that one is that they perhaps thought that if they got into the Championship, they would be able to attract a better striker. 

"But, you've got to cover your back. Even if they had gone up and felt that he wasn't good enough for the Championship, they could have sold him and got money for him, you know anyone that scores over 20 goals in any league is worth money. 

"So I cannot understand why they didn't secure his future and make him sign a new contract."

Wyke previously signed for Sunderland in the summer of 2018 from Bradford City and went on to score 41 goals in 113 games for the Black Cats before choosing to swap the Stadium of Light for the DW Stadium this summer to join up with the ambitious Latics.