NEW FACE IN NEXT WEEK – ROSS
JACK ROSS HOPEFUL OF BOOSTING SQUAD WITH ROBUST RECRUITMENT
Jack Ross remains confident Sunderland will add a new signing at the start of next week and believes the club has a robust recruitment strategy in place.
Sunderland, who converted Max Power’s loan deal into a permanent one on Wednesday, are close to adding a defender on loan.
Ross says that deal has been in the pipeline for a while and hopes it will be concluded early next week following the weekend trip to The Valley to face Charlton Athletic in League One.
“All being well, we will be able to do that beginning of next week unless anything happens last minute, which sometimes it can,” revealed Ross.
“But we are quite far down the line and have been for a while.
“It is organised and ready to do at the first possible date. Beginning of next week we will be able to finalise that, all being well.”
Provided Sunderland keep hold of Josh Maja this month - the 20-year-old top scorer is yet to sign a new deal ahead of today’s deadline set by the club - then Ross doesn’t expect to do much other business.
But he is remaining prepared should the club need to act fast.
Ross added: “We have a reasonably robust structure in place now that ensures we have a plan in place - not just if we lost Josh - should anything else change.
“It is difficult to say with certainty that everything will remain the same because of the unpredictable nature of football.
“We had that in the summer too, Callum McManaman was an example of that. He was doing really well and then within a day or two he was off to the Championship with Wigan.
“Because we have had more time together and how often I speak and meet with Tony Coton, it is good and we feel we are in a reasonably good position should anything unpredictable or unplanned come around.
“Other than that we wouldn’t do anything unless we felt it added real value. I am reasonably happy with the squad, they have proven to be competitive in this league.
“If there is an opportunity to add - that we thought would make a huge difference to the second half of the season - then I’m sure we would ask the question of Stewart [Donald] and equally he was very supportive of what we tried to do in the summer.”