Michael Beale issues candid Sunderland transfer update and explains where club stand right now

Michael Beale says he remains confident that Sunderland will add to their squad in the January transfer window but admits they are no closer to a breakthrough at this stage.

The Sunderland head coach reiterated his message that the club were looking at a smaller number of high-calibre players in the window, rather than looking to perform major surgery on the current squad. He says it has been a slow market for Championship clubs so far, and admits that competition for players is fierce.

He says he is confident the club will recruit and is focusing on the players already in the building in the interim, insisting they are more than capable of achieving strong results.

"There's nothing to report, same as last week on incomings and outgoings," he said.

"People behind the scenes are working really hard.

"I think with AFCON and the Asia Cup, one or two clubs have lost players. I think it then also becomes a bit of a bidding war, doesn't it. With the number nine position as well, the club did invest in four in the summer and so we want to get them going as well.

"Every single manager you speak to this week is going to show a little bit of frustration because even if you got three or four you wanted, you always wanted one more. That's just the nature of it. I came here because I was really excited by the squad I have, so the most important focus for me and my coaching staff is on the boys in house while the executive board our working away on our recommendations and trying to get one or two in.

"We've got two or three areas where we feel we could help the team, and that's help us now and then also moving forward from the summer. We've got do what's right for the club in terms of working within the budget. Also, we want good players. We don't want players who are going to come in and sit behind me [on the bench]. I think the performance on Saturday deserves maybe one or two players to go into that team and really push and challenge those players, to then rotate in and out if we have injuries. We don't feel we need players to pad the squad out. I think that would be wrong, certainly when we have players who were are developing and have high hopes for in the future."

Beale added that he hopes Sunderland's business does not go right to the wire.

"I hope not, I hope not," he said.

"We need to focus on the team we have in-house, that's a good team. Let's focus on that then try to add to it.

"You'd like that to be sooner rather than later because we're playing really important games every seven days at the moment. It could be costly come the end of the season couldn't it. We can't take our eyes off the group we have in-house. They've shown enough to beat anyone in this league so let's focus on them. If we can get one or two in to help it would be a big boost. If not we still have a good team."