Tony Mowbray is hopeful that Sunderland will bolster their attack in the next few weeks.
Speaking to the Sunderland Echo, the Black Cats boss admitted that the team ‘could do with some help’ up top ahead of their Championship opener next month.
Joe Gelhardt’s return to Leeds United this summer left Sunderland with only Ross Stewart up front, though the Scot is expected to be sidelined for the start of the season.
The Wearside club signed Luis Hemir Semedo from Benfica last month and had fans excited with his brief appearance during their pre-season friendly against South Shields last week.
However, the 19-year-old has no senior appearances under his belt and Sunderland will be eager to bring in a more experienced option prior to their home clash against Ipswich Town.
“I’m hoping there’s still a few more new faces to come into the building,” Mowbray told the Sunderland Echo.
“We could probably do with some help up the top end of the pitch. If you think that Ross isn’t quite ready yet, then we’ve only really got young Hemir Luis Semedo, but he is still a boy, and it’s a lot of burden for him to be the only senior striker that we’ve got.
“We could probably do with some help at the top end of the pitch over the next few weeks, and I’m sure we’re working very hard behind the scenes on that.”
Sunderland should learn from January disaster that they need to speed up their striker search
Sunderland fans were left frustrated when the club failed to bring in a new striker on January’s transfer deadline day, despite having Joe Gelhardt as their only fit option.
The Black Cats spent too long waiting around for the ‘right’ player and missed out on a number of attackers, eventually leaving them with no one.
While we don’t know what is going on behind the scenes this summer, they don’t want to make the same mistake again.
The Championship outfit have already missed out on Ellis Simms and Tom Cannon, while Jerry Yates looks set to join Swansea City.
The recruitment team need to consider breaking the transfer policy of only going for young players and widen their search to those with plenty of Championship experience.