Former Middlesbrough boss backs Sunderland to keep spending as Reinildo and Sadiki move closer

Sunderland have been told they ‘don’t need to spend millions’ to remain in the Premier League this season as the Black Cats look to complete another big money deal over the coming days.

The club transfer record was broken within days of the Championship play-off final win against Sheffield United as that Wembley triumph triggered a £20 million permanent transfer clause in a loan agreement for Roma attacking midfielder Enzo Le Fee. However, that record only lasted for a month as the Black Cats hit a new historic high when they concluded an ambitious £30 million deal for Strasbourg’s highly-rated midfielder Habib Diarra earlier this week.

Far from being over, the transfer activity appears to have been ramped up even further with Atletico Madrid left-back Reinildo Mandava and Union Saint-Gilloise midfielder Noah Sadiki both believed to be closing in on moves to Wearside. Further speculation has suggested Lazio midfielder Matteo Guendouzi, Chelsea goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic and Nice defender Melvin Bard are also of interest to the Black Cats as they prepare to return to the Premier League after an eight-year absence.

Former Stoke City and Middlesbrough manager Tony Pulis has assessed the business conducted by Sunderland so far this summer and claims the Black Cats will ‘go and keep spending’ - but stressed there is no need to spend big if you can attract ‘the right characters’ during the recruitment process.

Important

He told Fruity King: “I’ve been told that Sunderland might go and keep spending and I think all three promoted teams need to do that. But, what is important is that the manager has the system that he wants to play and the players coming in have to be better than the players that he had last year - but they have to suit the system because that is how you get results.

“It won't be the individual players, it will be if the team is solid enough to keep some clean sheets and be solid enough then to go forward, create chances and score goals. It'll be interesting to see how that pans out over the next month or so before the season starts. If you’re smart enough and invest in the right players, you don’t have to spend hundreds of millions to stay up in the Premier League.

He continued: “Whether they're Premier League players who can't break into the first team or whether they're players that you can take out of the Championship that you know will step up, you've got to be really smart with it. It amazes me when teams just throw money at players individually but collectively they are a mess, that makes no sense whatsoever to me. If you haven't got the right characters, if you haven't got the right structure, if you haven't got everybody pointing in the right direction, you are not going to be successful.”

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