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And although Darren Bent is not on that list, the Black Cats have not given up hope of bringing the striker in.

Steed Malbranque, Pascal Chimbonda, Younes Kaboul and Teemu Tainio are all being allowed to leave White Hart Lane as boss Juande Ramos plans a massive bid for Blackburn Rovers wantaway star David Bentley.

Ramos is ready to let England keeper Paul Robinson move to Ewood Park as part of the deal.

But Spurs know they will also need to come up with a massive transfer fee to sign the talented midfielder.

Malbranque is the best known and most eye-catching of the Tottenham players linked and his agent confirmed last week that Sunderland had inquired.

The French international is an exciting attacking player who has proved his worth both to Tottenham and to Fulham.

Chimbonda would be attractive because of his position to play in either full-back position. Tainio is a very useful defensive midfielder.

And while centre-half Younes Kaboul failed to sparkle last season after a £7m move from Auxerre, the 22-year-old is someone who could improve after a season of adjustment to life in the Premier League.

Meanwhile Sunderland have not yet given up hope on signing Bent but the situation is complicated by the fact that clubs are circling for Bent's fellow strikers Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane.

And despite West Ham United turning down a £4.5million move for George McCartney, Sunderland have not abandoned their pursuit of their former left-back.

The unfolding events marked 24 hours of high drama in the history of Sunderland Football Club.

Yesterday Roy Keane confessed he did not know when he would make progress in the transfer market although he admitted that the bids were in and signings could happen at any time.

A couple of new faces in by the weekend he suggested. Ideally half-a-dozen by the end of next week, he mused.

But he made it clear that everything depended on whether chairman Niall Quinn and chief executive Peter Walker could make the breakthroughs' they had been working so hard to secure.

"We've made some big bids for some good players," he said.

"Bids get turned down but then you try to reach agreement on figures and that's the stage we're at now.

"But I know that Niall and Peter are working extremely hard to get us to the position where we're talking to the players themselves after bids are agreed.

"You prefer to have new signings in for the beginning of pre-season but I'm not too worried about that at this stage because we have plenty of pre-season games to work on.

"And hopefully we might have one or two in over the weekend."

Now it appears that breakthroughs have been made and the ball is now in the manager's court in terms of persuading players to make the move to Wearside.

It is inevitable that genuine transfer target stories from all clubs will emerge over the summer months, among the dozens of spurious rumours that circulate.

But it is unusual for such precise figures and targets to emerge in the way they did yesterday.

And the initial stories detailing the targets and the fees seem to have emanated from Ireland. Fans will read into that what they will but there's no doubt that the figures and the targets are correct.

If Keane can persuade them to join Sunderland it would certainly plug a lot of gaps but the manager is still looking for extra firepower and Bent remains on the radar.