Kristjaan Speakman insists Sunderland will keep 'raising the threshold' as the club looks to strengthen this summer ahead of its return to the Championship. The Black Cats are preparing for a major summer rebuild following promotion, with around a third of the senior squad having departed either because they were on loan last season or have been released at the end of their contracts, while the club will also need to upgrade in key positions as it makes the step up from League One.
Plans were already well in hand before the summer window opened on Friday, with sporting director Speakman now working to bring in new faces for head coach Alex Neil to work with when the players reassemble at the Academy of Light for pre-season training a week on Wednesday. Sunderland have a core of players who will be expected to make the transition with the club to the next level, but new recruits will be needed to bring the squad back up to numerical strength.
"Naturally, you are going to have a cycle," said Speakman. "You're going to lose loan players, potentially, but we've got to find ones that we think can help us in the future but align that to what their football clubs think.
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"You're going to have some players out of contract that you are not going to retain. You're going to have some players on contracts you want to improve.
"Over a period of time, not just one transfer window, through the next two, three or four transfer windows, keep developing and improving the squad. It's up to the players in the squad to keep progressing with the football club.
"Some might out-perform the football club and therefore become saleable assets. But we want to keep pace to make sure they can stay with us.
"It makes perfect sense that you have a cohort of players that understand, can perform and are comfortable with Sunderland but you don't want the complacency so naturally in a performance environment, you need to make sure you can keep raising the threshold for what's required like in any successful business. If you've got sales targets in one year and reach them, you don't make the same targets again the year after.
"You keep moving it forward."
Sunderland have sealed just one move so far, with Speakman confirming last month that the club's promotion had triggered a clause in winger Leon Dajaku's loan deal which meant he will join on a permanent basis this summer from German side Union Berlin.
Teenage winger Michael Spellman has also joined following a successful trial period last season, but he will go into the U23 squad.
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