Sunderland boss discusses impact of Isaac Lihadji's possible exit - and whether there'll be more departures

Tony Mowbray believes Sunderland will be able to manage the potential departure of Isaac Lihadji, but says the club are still working hard on attacking reinforcements.

Lihadji had been lined up as a potential long-term successor to Amad but has interest from Qatar after an indifferent start to his Wearside career.

He was withdrawn from the starting line up at Hartlepool on Tuesday night, signalling that an exit could be nearing.

Mowbray believes that the addition of Bradley Dack has left his options behind the striker looking strong, and the club's key focus is adding more depth up front.

The head coach says strengthening in attack is a key focus in the window, though it might not necessarily mean a like-for-like replacement for Lihadji.

Mowbray has already confirmed that the club have bids in for strikers, and could of course yet utilise the loan market as they did with Amad in the latter stages of the window.

"We have Roberts and Clarke who in my mind are stick on in them positions," Mowbray said.

"You have Jewison, who has scored a few goals over pre-season but is still a very, very young boy.

"Attacking players is what we need. Dack has been brought in, we still have Pritchard, Ba. We think Ba looks better cutting in off the right hand side having a check and twist. We could think about putting Clarke down the middle and Ba off the left sometimes.

"Let's just keep rolling with them and keep trying to make them better. They'll be better for the experience of last season, they are young players and they had a great experience last season and hopefully they'll be stronger and better."

Mowbray also believes that there could be further outgoings from the squad before the end of the window, but has stressed that nothing is imminent and that the club are not actively pursuing any sales.

"I think there's a chance but I don't know the answer to where or how that will happen," he said.

"But I do think there's a chance.

"I do think we sort of could probably utilise salary for different positions on the pitch if we're trying to remould. But it's very difficult to talk about things like that because the phone has to ring.

"We're not out there pushing our players out the door. If the phone rings and it's right for the club and we feel pretty strong in one position but we're a bit empty in another, we might feel it's the right thing to move him out and use that salary or to sell him and use the money to fill this one. That's what football clubs have to do and footballers understand that.

"And it might work out best for them. They might go somewhere else and get a better salary and then they get what they want and we got what we want with a player in a different position who helps with our squad and the balance of it.

"Let's see how the next few weeks rolls by before the window shuts at the end of August. But I'd be pretty sure there'll be some movement around our squad in the next few weeks."