Sunderland boss outlines the key dilemma for Kristjaan Speakman and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus on deadline day

Tony Mowbray says he sympathises with Sunderland's big dilemma as they look to strengthen their squad on transfer deadline day.

Mowbray is hoping for a busy day as he looks to reinforce both his attacking options and his central midfield depth ahead of the always challenging winter schedule in the Championship.

Ross Stewart is expected to leave the club on deadline day after Sunderland and Southampton agreed a deal on Thursday night, which will leave the Black Cats in need of reinforcements.

They have been pursuing a deal for Ukrainian forward Nazariy Rusyn for much of this summer, but even landing the 24-year-old may not be enough.

Lynden Gooch is another player likely to depart on deadline day, with Stoke City close to completing a deal for the 27-year-old. Sunderland are also fielding significant interest in Patrick Roberts from Southampton, but the winger would leave a huge hole in the squad that already misses Amad. Whether Sunderland have any chance of replacing the quality of both on deadline day is hugely debatable, and will be a factor in the club's thinking when they weigh up the offer for Roberts.

The head coach says Sunderland are not yet at the stage in their evolution where they can compete with clubs benefiting from parachute payments, and says it leaves them with a tricky balance to strike as the soaring financials of the Premier League begin to have a knock-on effect throughout the pyramid.

"I've been doing this job for over 20 years now, there are two transfer windows every year - it might even have been a different system when I started," Mowbray said.

"They always go down to the wire, don't they?

"I was saying to Kristjaan the other day 'I hope I'm not still here at 11 o'clock on Friday night, because we kick off at 12.30pm on Saturday - you just get on with it and give me a text in the morning to tell me if we've signed anyone'.

"It's time against money.

"When they [selling club] are not bothered, they don't really have to let him go, there are three clubs chasing him, just wait who puts in the biggest bid.

"You can drag it on and drag it on and just take the biggest bid.

"This club has bid £2m, this club has bid £2m, another club might bid £3m - we might get £5m if we just wait"It's time against money, and when the clock starts ticking down in those last few hours, 50 deals get done in the last hour and then they all run over because of the paperwork and you have to wait until the middle of the night see whether a deal has been authorised.

"It seems crazy when the window is open all that time," he added.

"I talk to Kristjaan most days now, and a deal that might have been this much is now that much [bigger]. 'Are we going to pay that much? No, you're joking aren't you?!'

"Everything seems to have been skewed by the crazy money that clubs in the Premier League are spending, and I don't know whether the Saudi money has had any effect on it. It's trickling down and a £1m deal two years ago might be £8m now, or £9m or £10m.

"At this moment, in this club's evolution from coming out of League One, it is not buying £8m, £9m, £10m footballers. I totally respect the job that Kristjaan and the owner are doing.

"If Player A is saying 'I'm not coming unless I get £40,000 per week', are you giving it to them or are you saying 'go somewhere else, son'. Invariably, they go somewhere else and get £25,000 [per week]. It's business.

"Do you want to sign off a deal that you feel is just not quite right? Too expensive. Yet the reality is that it is very, very, unlikely that you'll get a deal where you think 'we got him cheap'.

"It doesn't happen. It's tough. What price?

"Yet there's the football coach who wants a centre-forward, wants someone to score goals, wants someone to help us win games.

"Never mind the football coach, what about the fans? The 46,000 fans [in the ground] and the hundreds of thousands around the world who are desperate for Sunderland to win on a Saturday or a Tuesday night.

"How much do you push and where do you go to to try and give them a team they can be proud of?"

Sunderland supporters will be keenly waiting to see what the answer to that question will be on deadline day.