Neil’s confident of signings – but ‘nothing is imminent’
Alex Neil remains confident that Sunderland will add to their squad before the end of the transfer window, but says no new additions are imminent ahead of QPR’s visit to the Stadium of Light.
Neil has said that he still wants to add four or five players to his squad after missing out on Everton striker Nathan Broadhead earlier this week.
Signing another striker remains a priority.
“It's an ongoing process,” Neil said at his press conference.
“It's one of those, sometimes you think you're almost getting there and suddenly it's not as close as you think.
“Then, equally, I could walk out of this press conference and someone is on their way.
“That's pretty much what the transfer market is like. Listen, I'm confident we'll get players in before the window if that's the question, but no one is on their way up at the moment, shall we say.
“The difficulty you’ve got with targets is you’ll have a whole list of targets for different positions, and what will naturally happen is that some guys will come late in the day that you didn’t think were available and you didn’t consider, because we didn’t think we were going to get him or he’s not available.
“For the other teams, there will be guys that played a fundamental part last season for other teams and then this season, in the next two or three weeks, they might have to find themselves another home to play.
“The transfer market is a moving thing all the time. It’s so fluid.
"Guys will become available that you don’t expect, guys will drop off that you think you have a chance of getting, guys will stay because maybe someone in that position at that club they are at has then got injured, so they can’t let them out.
“There is so much goes into it. Honestly, people must think there is a list and we’ll just say ‘we’ll take him’. There is so much background work that goes into it – making sure they have got the right profile, temperament, mentality. Then there is affordability as well so that naturally complicates things.”
Neil also hinted that Jack Diamond could still leave the club on loan before the transfer window shuts, with the winger one of Sunderland’s better performers on an otherwise disappointing night at Sheffield Wednesday in midweek.
Diamond played in an unfamiliar striking role in the 2-0 defeat.
“Jack played the other night and we've still got a few weeks left of the window,” Neil said.
“What we want to make sure with the lads is that if they're not going to get as much gametime here as
they need for their development, we'll look to get them out on loan.
“But at the moment no decision has been made on that.”
Leon Dajaku is set to miss Saturday’s game against QPR but Neil otherwise expects to select from a fully-fit squad.
“I doubt Leon will be available, he's had a recurrence of his thigh problem,” Neil said.
“As far as I'm aware, we have no other injury concerns.”