He told BBC Radio 5 Live: "In an ideal world we would have been able to digest it better and maybe the chance for the player to speak to his prospective manager without it being out in the open. It's a shame it's come out.
"It will be looked at over the next two or three days - it won't be rushed. There will be other interested parties.
"There are a couple of overseas clubs that were interested but he wanted to stay here. He wants to win domestic competitions and he wants to play for England.
"We'll try and meet with Gordon Strachan and take it from there. The first prerequisite is that there is an agreement between the clubs but I won't pretend the contract situation isn't difficult.
"His present contract with Sunderland was negotiated at a time when football was much more buoyant financially.
"There's still plenty of money in the game but let's not kid ourselves, clubs use it as a negotiating tactic. They've just got £7million from Wayne Bridge which they weren't expecting - we'll take some of that thank you."