Sunderland ended the summer transfer window with nine new signings in total.
Going into deadline day last week, Sunderland had just five summer signings to their name, after what was a mostly underwhelming summer transfer window.
Proceedings were slow for sporting director Kristjaan Speakman, who along with the Sunderland owners had the appointment of Regis Le Bris to first sort out.
That inevitably delayed transfer matters, but Sunderland burst to life towards the end of the summer transfer window, signing all of Salis Abdul Samed, Ahmed Abdullahi, Milan Aleksic, and Chris Mepham on deadline day.
Speakman made decent use of the free agent market over the summer to bring in the likes of Alan Browne, Ian Poveda and Simon Moore, with Browne in particular looking like a very useful signing.
Now with the summer transfer window shut, clubs up and down the country may be looking at the last of the remaining free agents, and weighing up potential swoops as they plug the final gaps in their side.
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Will Sunderland sign any free agents this month
Asked whether or not Sunderland will look at the free agent market this month, journalist Michael Graham played down the possibility.
Sunderland under Speakman have rarely looked at free agent signings far into the summer transfer window, let alone after it’s finished.
And with Le Bris’ first-team squad performing well right now, before the additions of their deadline day signings, any more additions seems neither necessary nor likely.
Graham posted on X:
Crunch time for Regis Le Bris at Sunderland
Le Bris has certainly started well to life at the Stadium of Light. But now comes the real test of his and his side’s mettle.
Teams will have a bit more of an idea of how Sunderland play; their strengths and their possible weaknesses, so expect teams to go out to frustrate Sunderland.
And Le Bris also has the task of integrating his new signings into the side, which may prove to be a tough one, with Sunderland looking like a very well-drilled and organised outfit as it is.
But having new player wanting to play, and added competition, is of course a nice problem for Le Bris to have right now, and it’s still early days for him too.
Expectations need to be maintained despite what’s been an unprecedented start to the new season.
Sunderland’s next fixture is a trip to Plymouth Argyle on September 14th.