Sunderland are in transfer talks with 'numerous' players according to Alex Neil - but the Black Cats are not in control of the timing. The Black Cats have brought in four new signings this summer, but are still in need of several more additions to strengthen key positions.
Unsurprisingly, Neil wants new recruits in place as quickly as possible to give him the maximum amount of time to work with them ahead of the new season. But it is proving difficult to push deals through quickly.
"There's been ongoing discussions with numerous players, from different clubs, and the minute we get something across the line, which I can assure you we want to get done as soon as possible, then everybody will be made aware," said Neil, following his side's pre-season defeat at Bradford last night. "At certain times, though, that process cannot get speeded up by what we're trying to do.
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"We're banging the door down as much as we can. I don't want to do my business on the last day in August – I want to get my business done as quickly as possible.
"But as I say, the simple fact, unfortunately for us, is that we're not in control of that. There's a lot of teams at the moment, certainly from the Premier League, that are only just coming back from trips abroad.
"You can't sign a player if he's in a different country."
Top of Neil's shopping list is to bring in attacking reinforcements as competition and cover for Ross Stewart, who at present is the club's only senior specialist number nine. He said: "I'm naturally concerned by the fact that we've currently got one centre-forward in the building.
"There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to try to make sure we remedy that. That situation hasn't changed over the last few weeks.
"I'm not standing here saying everything's terrible because we've only got one centre-forward – we've had discussions with regard to who we're going to try to get in, who we're speaking to, how we're going and where it is. But as I've said before, we need to talk to other teams, and then it becomes a question of are they going to let players out on loan, are they going to sell them, what are they going to do with them?
"Unfortunately, for us, that's not our decision. We can't dictate when we get hold of those players. Naturally, I want them in just now. But you're not always in control of that situation."
Sunderland are also in need of players in other positions, with at least one goalkeeper also high on his list. Academy graduate Anthony Patterson performed well in the second half of last season and is likely to start the new campaign as first choice, but Sunderland are in need of cover and competition for him.
Former Manchester United youngster Jacob Carney played in last night's friendly but his first team experience is limited to just a single outing in the EFL Trophy last season against his old club's U21s. Asked about the goalkeeping situation, Neil said: "We need to strengthen in a whole host of positions.
"Jacob's a young lad, he's inexperienced, but I think he will become a good goalkeeper. We as a group are inexperienced.
"Even a lot of our older lads, they haven’t played at the level we're going to. That carries its own risk, but equally, it's quite exciting in that they might go there and do really, really well.
"We don't actually know how we're going to perform. [Pre-season] performances up until last night have been really promising.
"Unfortunately, last night, we didn’t perform as well as we can, but that can happen. We're not going to play well every game."
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