Bain: Transfer ‘success’ but Cats won’t splash cash

Martin Bain believes Sunderland had a good transfer window – but admits ‘legacy payments’ on old signings continues to hamper them.

Fans have been critical of the lack of spending on Wearside this summer, with the Black Cats making a substantial overall profit following the sale of Jordan Pickford.

Bain, however, believes Sunderland have made crucial gains in improving the culture and identity of the playing squad and is confident that results on the pitch will begin to mirror that.

“I look at the transfer window as a success,” he told the Echo. “Leave the finances aside for a second, we sat down and we said, right, what kind of footballer do we want to bring to the club?”

“What is the right type of approach for us in terms of what the fans want to see, what the club needs and the identity of the type of the player?

“The two big words were hunger and desire.

“We’ve brought players to the club who, whether it be on loan or on permanent signings, have got a lot to prove. The loans that have come in, the younger ones, they’ve got an opportunity to play and to show their clubs that they’ve got something to offer. The slightly older ones who weren’t getting games at their clubs, they have that hunger to show their desire for success.

“Then we’ve had to look to players who we think we’ve got real value for money, and Aiden McGeady is a good case in point, a good piece of business for us.

“I fully recognise the point that we’ve sold players for large sums of money and not spent commensurately, but that’s for the reasons I’ve outlined with regards to where we are with the finances of the club and