Phil Parkinson reveals when he expects Sunderland to land their first January transfer

The Black Cats are keen to secure a number of signings once the winter window opens, with Parkinson having identified a number of targets.

And while Sunderland are already in discussions with players and clubs over deals, Parkinson believes patience may be required in order to secure his top targets.

“We’re not wanting to wait, I don’t think that’s a choice,” he said.

“It will be a case of the availability of players. The clubs we’re speaking to, they’re looking to move things around and you get that scenario of us doing a deal with a player, but they want to see how they get through the Christmas period themselves and obviously people want to get players in the other way.

“It can be a waiting game, but we’ve got to make sure the players we get in are good ones and improve the starting eleven.”

Waiting may not necessarily be a bad thing in Parkinson’s eyes, though – provided he can secure his top targets by the time the window closes.

“It’s easy to get players in, but the key is to get good ones,” he added.

“We don’t want to bring players in just as a gesture, ‘oh yeah, look what we’ve done straight away.’

“We’d prefer to make sure we get the better ones.”