Tony Mowbray is confident Sunderland will land some 'young, exciting, signings' before the transfer window closes - but warns the club may still be active in the market on deadline day. The Black Cats are keen to strengthen their squad this month with at least one striker and a defensive midfielder high on their shopping list, and they have been linked with a raft of players in recent weeks.
Mowbray says Sunderland's sporting director Kristjaan Speakman is working hard behind the scenes and says he hopes a breakthrough is on the horizon, although the club is prepared to play a waiting game if necessary to get the right player at the right price. "We're working hard, Kristjaan is working extraordinarily hard and is office light is burning well into the night," said Mowbray.
"If you haven't got the multi-millions like some of the Premier League teams... You read some of the ridiculous numbers that players are getting signed for - we're trying to do deals that are right for the football club with players that we believe have growth in them and that will become better.
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"They aren't easy to do, because every club that is selling these players wants the best price because they know these players and they know their potential. That's why we might going right until the end of the transfer window.
"We have to wait and see how the next couple of weeks rolls for us but I know there's a lot of hard work and a lot of discussions going on behind the scenes to try and incrementally improve the squad that we have. I think we could be close [to a breakthrough], but you never know.
"We hope that something is pretty close - there are deals we're negotiating to try and get over the line. We won't break the structures in place to bring someone in on much more than players who have worked really hard to get this club out of League One - we're growing it incrementally and I think that's the right thing do.
"We're trying to do it bit by bit. We are growing this football club and hopefully over the next few weeks will announce some young, exciting, signings.
"We aren't sitting here thinking 'sign this one and this one and we should get in the top six and have a chance of promotion', we are trying to grow the club incrementally so that we get stronger and stronger. If I'm sitting here in 18 months' time, we should be thinking about a club that can compete right at the top end of the table."
Mowbray is preparing for Sunday's game against Middlesbrough at the Stadium of Light, which will pit him against the club where he began his playing career and which he later managed. Sunderland go into the game sitting tenth in the table while Boro are fourth, although they are separated by just four points.
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