Sunderland handed a boost in ‘pursuit’ of St Johnstone forward Guy

Sunderland have been handed a boost in their reported pursuit of St Johnstone striker Guy Melamed – with his current club admitting they could miss out on extending his contract.

Melamed, who has also been linked with Portsmouth and Ipswich Town, joined the Scottish Premier League side earlier in the season and has caught the eye in his debut year at McDiarmid

Park.

The Israeli striker has netted seven times in 20 games this term, and is expected to be in high demand come the summer when his deal expires.

And while St Johnstone are keen to retain his services, manager Callum Davidson admits that it may be tricky to keep Melamed beyond the end of the campaign – particularly given the financial muscle of some of the other clubs who could throw their hats into the ring for the player.

"We’ve offered him a very good contract and his agent just wants to wait and see,” admitted Davidson.

"That’s all we can do. We can’t offer money that’s not there for somebody.

"We have a budget, it’s been a difficult time with Covid and we’ve offered him a really good deal.

"The agent has said he’ll wait and see and that’s where we are.

“Obviously we can’t be paying out ridiculous money – that’s not what St Johnstone does and we can’t afford it.

"But there are other players out there that we’ll find and have a look at in case he doesn’t stay.

"Would we like him to stay? The answer is yes but we might be out-priced.

"The fact he’s done so well has probably not helped our cause.

“He’s performed and scored goals at really important times this season.

"It’s a tough one. I knew when he came in that we might only get a year out of him.

"The one thing none of us knew the extent of was

Covid.

"He didn’t get a pre-season and he missed a lot of football and it took him a long time to adapt to the Scottish league.

“I still think there’s more to come from Guy if he has a pre-season with us. It’s probably out of our hands at the moment.”

St Johnstone have a Scottish Cup semi-final against St Mirren on Sunday.