Journalist Phil Smith has insisted that despite a lack of activity, transfers are advancing behind the scenes at Sunderland.
The transfer window will be closing in two weeks and Sunderland will be left with the squad that Tony Mowbray has at his disposal as they look to make a push for the play-offs.
A lot of Sunderland fans would’ve snapped your hand off at the start of the season to even be in with a sniff of the play-offs at this stage of the season given they had only just been promoted from League One.
However, there is still a lot of football to be played this season, as well as at least one more FA Cup game, so Mowbray is going to have to utilise his entire squad, which makes additions this month very important despite a clear lack of activity thus far on Wearside.
Smith has offered Sunderland fans reassurance over the work their club is doing on the transfer front while speaking on The Roar podcast.
He said: “From my understanding, I don’t think at this stage we’re necessarily preparing the scarf pics, although I could prove to be wrong. I don’t pretend to be an oracle as you well know because I most certainly am not, I don’t think we’re necessarily at the scarf pictures yet but there are some pretty advanced discussions going on around certain targets.
Do Sunderland need to make signings?
Yes!
No!
“I am pretty confident Sunderland will sign two players this window, it might be more than that, we may have Ellis Simms coming back in addition to that, or another loanee coming in.”
TIF Thoughts on Sunderland’s transfer plans…
It will be frustrating for Sunderland fans to see their club being rather slow in the transfer market, but given they were likely rocked when Ellis Simms’ loan spell was cut short earlier in January, this will have shaken up their plans.
Given there is still a lot of time left in the transfer window, Sunderland will be confident of landing their top targets and potentially getting Simms back in on loan if his parent club Everton are able to sort their own attacking woes out.
The Black Cats have a rather unexpected chance of making the top six this season and securing back-to-back promotions, which would be quite fitting given they tasted back-to-back relegations not too long ago which saw them slip into England’s third tier, but Mowbray will need to be backed if that’s to happen.