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Besiktas have offered to take Wahbi Khazri on a two-year loan which will see out his Sunderland contract, according to reports in Turkey.

The idea is unlikely to find much favour with the Black Cats , who are determined to get full value for the players they want to sell this summer.

The problem is that Khazri’s £37,000-a-week wages are beyond the reach of many clubs outside the super-wealthy Premier League, which is why overseas clubs are reluctant to pay for a transfer fee on top.

The agents of Khazri, and team-mate Lamine Kone, were reported to have asked Sunderland for free transfers for the pair to move them off the wage bill.

(Image: AFP)

The Wearsiders were paying around £35m in wages last season, way beyond the budget of a League One club. Those who have signed contracts in the last 12 months will take a 40 per cent reduction, but Khazri and Kone do not fit into that category.

A two-year loan would amount to much the same thing. Khazri would be available for a free transfer by the end of it. That is what Besiktas have proposed, according to Haber Turk.

“Our focus is on getting the right value for those players. They played their part in relegation,” owner Stewart Donald said recently, although in fairness Khazri can take little blame for dropping into League One, having only played 74 minutes of the campaign.

“It’s all very well now for them to take the view that they can leave without a fee when the fees that have been paid for them are hefty. There’s a lot of negotiating to do.”

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Sunderland paid £9m for Khazri in January 2016. They would have sold him last summer had they been able to find a buyer.

Instead they had to settle for a season-long loan at Rennes, with the Black Cats reportedly contributing £8,000 a week to his £37,000 wages. Rennes would like to take Khazri back and have made him an offer, but they have not triggered the £6m price at which a deal would automatically go through, as per the terms of the loan.

Marseille, Lyon and Roma are also thought to be interested.

Lyon will make it easier to pay Khazri’s wages by buying former Middlesbrough full-back Rafael Da Silva for £2.2m.

Ellis Short’s decision to wipe out £125m of debt as part of the deal which saw Donald takes over means Sunderland do not have to take the first offer which comes their way. They have shown as much by turning down a couple of bids for Paddy McNair, and one for Didier Ndong (they accepted an improved offer of £6.6m from Torino, but it broke down over personal terms).