Boss hopeful on another deal early next week

Manager Jack Ross hopes that Sunderland will seal their fifth summer signing next week.

Ross has added Alim Ozturk, Jon McLaughlin, Chris Maguire and Tom Flanagan to his ranks as he overhauls a threadbare squad ahead of the League One kick-off.

Talks have been held with a number of players, including midfielder Dylan McGeouch. Sunderland are eager to make a number of further additions to their squad before the campaign begins against Charlton at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, August 4 – five weeks from today.

The Black Cats fly out to Portugal for a pre-season training camp this weekend and Ross admits that the club are having to ‘juggle’ as they deal with the onerous wage bill left by two successive relegations.

EFL regulations mean that Sunderland can only spend 75% of their predicted turnover on wages.

A number of players have left the club and solid progress has been made on bringing the wage bill down, but there are still a handful of high earners whose salaries are unaffacted by the drop into League One.

An economics graduate, Ross says he fully understands the situation and is confident that he will get the squad he needs eventually.

Ross said: “We’re hopeful there’ll be one more signing in the early part of next week, then maybe we’ll have to wait and see who leaves us or who moves on.

“There’s a constant balancing act with that for us, for a number of reasons, not just in terms of the squad numbers.

“People will understand the financial aspect of that, not in terms of a lack of resources, but more because of the regulations [SCMP].