Kristjaan Speakman discusses Sunderland's approach to squadbuilding this summer

The Black Cats are in talks with Lynden Gooch, Patrick Roberts and Bailey Wright over agreeing new deals at the club.

Sunderland are also keen on bringing some of last season's successful loanees, including Nathan Broadhead, back to the club.

“Our starting point is continual improvement so from our very outset, we’ve been continually driving to get better," Speakman said.

“We wanted to develop people within the building so we wanted to take players on that journey with us.

“Naturally there is going to be cycles so we’ve got to try and obtain the right balance in the Championship.

"We got a lot of scrutiny around ‘we didn’t get the balance right in League One, we didn’t have this or that’. I was really calm and on record from January onwards that we felt we had a really good squad.

“Naturally for supporters and fans, you want the best players for every position. You want a depth chart of four players. That is just not possible.

“We have to make tough decisions. That’s what we're paid in those positions to do and you have to make discretionary choices about where you have certain strength and where you might spend more money on certain players in certain positions.

"Thankfully for us, that has been vindicated by the positions and obviously the performances over the last three months and more recently in those play-off games where it is a real pressurised situation.

“We’ve got an understanding right now of where the players are and where we think some of those players can get to and then we will compliment that with new players but you have got to be really careful around your transition period and carrying some of that success with us and then starting to filter and integrate those new players which is exactly what we have done over the last 18 months," he added.

"It’s not different really.

“Naturally, you are going to have a cycle. You’re going to lose loan players potentially but we’ve got to align ones that we think can help us in the future but align that to what their football clubs think.

“You’re going to have some players out of contract that you are not going to retain. You’re going to have some players on contracts you want to improve. Over a period of time, not just one transfer window, through the next two, three or four transfer windows, keep developing and improving the squad.

“It’s up to the players in the squad to keep progressing with the football club. Some might out-perform the football club and therefore become saleable assets. But we want to keep pace to make sure they can stay with us.

“It makes perfect sense that you have a cohort of players that understand, can perform and are comfortable with Sunderland but you don’t want the complacency so naturally in a performance environment, you need to make sure you can keep moving the threshold for what’s required like in any successful business."

Sunderland are also planning to reward a cohort of last season's successful squad, including Ross Stewart, with new deals.