Key questions that will be answered in coming weeks

Sunderland’s transfer business is stepping up as pre-season work continues to ensure the players are firing come the opening day of the Championship campaign against Derby County.

Sunderland writer Phil Smith held a live Q&A with fans on our SAFC Facebook page to discuss transfers, Simon Grayson and all things red and white.

Here are some of the best bits from the in-depth discussion.

Quite simply, instinctive finishing. This move would represent a remarkable revival for a career that was drifting after a raft of injuries just last summer.

After bursting onto the scene as an athletic and mobile striker at Everton, Vaughan has kept it simple and highly effective at Bury.

He scores with his head and both feet, and his decisive finishing showed he can be an asset.

I don’t see him as first choice but with money tight,

Not as of yet. It is an interesting area of the squad. You have O’Shea and Djilobodji, while both Galloway and Browning could play as your third centre-half if you want to go with five at the back, which Grayson will do on occasions.

With Michael Ledger and Thomas Beadling there is cover, but you feel another one is needed.

Aden Flint has been linked for a long time and is likely to move this summer, but there doesn’t look to be anything in it at the moment. Championship experienced, however, that will be the kind of profile we’d be looking at it if he does strengthen in that area.

I suspect Sunderland have budgeted and prepared assuming all three will leave. It is dragging on longer than anyone expected but Kone will almost certainly leave in the coming weeks, and it is likely to be the same with Lens.

One caveat to that is that far all their talk, Fenerbahce are yet to show any signs of stumping up cash. Khazri is less clear cut, but it still seems likely that he will return to France or head elsewhere in Europe before the transfer window shuts.

Like most Sunderland fans, I hope not. He’s a treat to watch at the moment. Mannone was very coy on this when asked after the Bury game, which tells you it remains up in the air. To me it is a bit of a no