Arsenal and Liverpool have both been linked with the England U21 star with clubs looking to add a bit of steel into their midfield. Sunderland have been keen admirers for a number of weeks since Bruce took up the vacant managers job and has failed so far with two bids.
A third bid is apparently going to be made with a figure of £10m being banded around but Chairman Dave Whelan is starting to get annoyed with the bids after telling Sunderland to back off.
Speaking to the Wigan Evening Post, Whelan said
"Sunderland are wasting their time - and I've told them that.
"I said, 'Don't even bother bidding for him again'. Lee will be at Wigan this season.
"When I heard about the first bid from Sunderland, I said straight away to John Benson, 'He isn't going anywhere. He's staying here'.
"And Roberto agrees with me, so that's it. Finished."
Whelan added: "Lee wants to stay. He's happy here, he knows he's making progress here, and he wants to play under Roberto. It's out of the way as far as he's concerned."
It remains to be seen whether Sunderland are going to cool off in their interest and the good relationship Steve Bruce has with Dave Whelan could become affected by this transfer battle.
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