Kristjaan Speakman launches strong defence of Sunderland transfer policy after mixed deadline-day results

Kristjaan Speakman has launched a staunch defence of Sunderland's transfer policy, insisting that the squad is getting stronger and that the current group is capable of going on to achieve promotion this season.

Speakman spoke ahead of Michael Beale's press conference to reflect on a January transfer window in which Leo Hjelde, Callum Styles and Romaine Mundle joined the club. But there was frustration that the club were again unable to land an established striker on deadline day, as had been the case this time a year ago following Ellis Simms' recall and Ross Stewart's injury.

Many fans had also hoped to see the club recruit specialist cover for the injured Corry Evans, with Alex Pritchard's departure another talking point in light of his form in recent weeks. Sunderland's sporting director said he understood those debates but insisted that the decisions were yielding progress on the pitch, as well as putting the club in a stronger position for the future.

He said: "It's three years, seven windows since I've been here, is it? We picked up a team that was ninth in League One with an average age of over 29. I think we've now got one of the youngest, most exciting teams in the country, on the up and competing in that top end of the Championship with probably a squad value over £100 million, you guys can assess that.

"If that's no progress, then I'm not really sure what is. But we certainly don't want to be complacent about it, but we have lots of conviction in how we're working. There's lots of choices within that and when you make a choice, you open that up for people to have an opinion on that whether it be fans, pundits, journalists. Everyone will have an opinion and that's the beauty of football, everyone will have a discussion about the business. But ultimately, whenever anyone looks into the club, they'll hopefully see professionalism, continuity and a conviction in what we're doing. We believe through that conviction, we'll keep getting success."

While the January window saw Sunderland add more talented youngsters to their squad, The Echo asked Speakman if he felt that the window as a whole had improved the team's prospects of going on to win promotion this season.

"Yeah, we're really comfortable with the squad," Speakman said.

"Time will tell, every decision we make is a pre-mortem and everything everyone else [judges] is a post-mortem. For us, we have to try and predict [what's next] and we're in a really comfortable place with the players we've brought in and how the squad is balanced. There's nothing to say that we can't achieve what we want to achieve."

Speakman said the club had pushed hard to add another striker but were determined not to pursue deals that were poor value for money and could impact future windows: "The nine position is very similar to all the rest of them," Speakman said.

"You have three or four targets that you have to prioritise and I think forward positions is always an area you'd like to strengthen if you can. We went right down to the wire on three or four of them, and then at the end of it we knew it wasn't to be for various reasons, availability being one of them.

"Ultimately finance gets drawn into it and there is a choice if you want to spend more and more but there becomes a point where you have to evaluate that against the value and on this occasion that didn't come through for us. It's not something around with huge frustration, to be honest. We improved the forward line with Romaine joining us and we've got three players in the building we believe in."

The sporting director also admitted that the club's wait to see if Amad would be made available for a loan deal may have hampered some of their incoming business, but said it was the right thing to do given the forward's potential value to the squad.

"Amad was one of those three or four targets," Speakman said.

"Ultimately, you’re waiting on player availability most of the time.It ran its course that he wasn’t available. He’s not turned up anywhere else. We stayed in that for as long as we possibly could, and in hindsight, you could say that was to the detriment of maybe signing another player earlier on, but we felt that was the choice we had to make and we were comfortable with that choice.”

Sunderland return to action on Sunday when they face Middlesbrough in what is a vital game in the race for the play-offs. Hjelde and Mundle will go straight into the squad, though Callum Styles will be absent for the next two fixtures as he recovers from surgery on his appendix.

"Romaine’s not played a lot of football in terms of starting appearances, but he’s been fully fit and training," Speakman said of Mundle.

"He came in and did his fitness testing, so we know exactly where he’s at. He will be available for selection at the weekend, and that will obviously be up to the coach to pick the team."

Beale later confirmed that Hjelde was also ready to play if required.