Sunderland have had the 'pedal to the metal from Day One' on the transfer front according to Alex Neil - meaning there is no room to speed things up in the wake of recent injury problems. Neil sounded more optimistic when discussing transfers today than he had earlier in the week, saying he is confident that reinforcements will arrive 'sooner rather than later' and that a few deals will be completed 'shortly' and before the last-minute scramble in the run-up to the deadline.
The need to strengthen the squad following promotion to the Championship has been clear since the summer and seven new faces have arrived already, albeit two of those were at the club last season on loan. But over the last week or so injuries have begun to have an effect, with summer addition Dan Ballard expected to be out for a couple of months with a fractured foot, while Carl Winchester is struggling with a back problem, and key midfielder Corry Evans missed the midweek defeat at Sheffield United although he may return at Stoke City tomorrow.
Neil insists the injuries have not changed the fundamentals of the situation, and says Sunderland were already working as quickly as possible to bring in the new recruits he needs. "The situation hasn't changed," he said.
READ MORE: Sunderland's Alex Neil gives an injury update on Corry Evans and Danny Batth ahead of Stoke clash
"It's not that we have reacted off the back of a couple of injuries. We've talked about recruitment and reinforcements since the start of the window.
"We will be recruiting. I'm very confident we will have players in sooner rather than later to help the squad.
"It's always a rush towards the end of the window. I'm hopeful we might get a couple in before the hectic 'supermarket sweep' at the end.
"We know what we have to do and there have been ongoing discussions on a daily basis for weeks and weeks and weeks. Unfortunately, what has happened at the moment is that we've picked up a couple of knocks and niggles that makes it look worse arguably than it is.
"I'm hopeful we can get a few things across the line shortly. But the parameters are set at the outset: this is what we are going to spend and what we now need to do is find the best players for the prices we can get them at.
"That doesn't change, it won't change, and it hasn't changed, unless they [the ownership] deem that they want to change it - but that's their prerogative. We just have to find the best players for what we can get, and at the moment those deals are happening as quickly as humanly possible.
"There is no sense of 'right, we'll speed it up now because we have lost a player'. It's been pedal to the metal from Day One."
At the beginning of the week, Neil sounded downbeat about transfers but he shrugged that off today. He said: "I'm only human, and the difficulty is that in my role I want transfers done just now - tonight, tomorrow morning - but that's not how it works.
"It's not a case of being frustrated or not frustrated from the point of view of doing something or not doing something, we just want to get things done as quickly as possible to give us the best chance of winning as many games as we can. Things are moving forward positively and we are hopeful that we can get a few bits of business done."
Neil also said it was 'inevitable' that would be some deals that would go right to the wire. "It's inevitable," he said.
"It's going to happen. "That will happen for arguably one, and potentially two, positions depending on what we are looking at at the time and how things go.
"You can't control the window, it is a beast all on its own. When player trading starts to happen it has a knock-on effect for most teams - whether that's coming in or going out."
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