The players who could still leave Sunderland and the leagues they can still move to

Though the transfer window has shut in the UK, Sunderland's work remains ongoing.

While it was a hugely successful summer and deadline day for the Black Cats, the one slight frustration may well be that they weren't able to find moves for as many players on the fringes of the squad as they would have liked. That work took a step forward on Tuesday night, when Nazariy Rusyn joined Polish top-tier side Arka Gdynia on loan for the rest of the campaign.

Kristjaan Speakman said: "At this stage of his career, it’s vitally important for Naz to be playing games. We have worked hard to identify the right opportunity for him this season, and I know he’s looking forward to the challenges ahead."

Sunderland would ideally like to secure moves for a number of other players in the coming days and weeks, with clubs in a number of leagues still open for a little while yet. The next deadline for a batch of prominent leagues comes on on September 5th, when the windows close in Austria, Croatia, and Ukraine. Teams in Belgium and Poland will must finalise their business by the deadline on September 8th. The following day, September 9th, will see the transfer window shut for clubs in Czechia, Romania, and Switzerland. On September 10th, Saudia Arabia will follow suit. Two of the latest deadlines will pass in Turkey and Greece, on September 11th and September 12th respectively. Mexico’s window will shut even later still, on September 13th.

It's understood that Sunderland have held promising talks with a club for the loan transfer of Milan Aleksić, and that could still go through the give the young midfielder valuable playing time. Sunderland would also like to secure a loan move for talented striker Ahmed Abdullahi, who showed promise in pre season but who isn't likely to play regularly in the Premier League at this stage of his career. Sunderland had lined up a good loan move to Ligue 1 side Angers, only for it to fall through due to financial restrictions placed on the club by the French governing bodies.

Ideally, Sunderland would also like to find new clubs for Abdoullah Ba, Jay Matete, Timothee Pembele, Joe Anderson and Ian Poveda, though so far this has proved challenging.

There could also be some movement on the loan front when it comes to the National League, which remains an open option for some of the talented young players in Sunderland's ranks. Harrison Jones would be one obvious contender for such a move, though the club and player may instead choose to wait until January for an EFL move.

What Kristjaan Speakman said about Sunderland's ongoing bid to offload players

“Our transfer window has concluded, but there are some other windows and markets that are still open so we’re going to continue to work in those markets to try to find opportunities for players that aren’t currently in the first-team squad," Speakman said.

"Any professional player at Sunderland, whether they’re outside the squad as a senior player or they’re coming through the academy, has to work as hard as they can to try to get into Regis’ squad and team. That opportunity is there for everybody. We have to try to get the right opportunities for the right players. Some players, at the minute, ideally need more regular games because of where they are in their career. We’re trying to facilitate that, and you’ve seen one or two players go out the building in the last week that would be on the edge of our squad, so at the minute, for them and their careers, it’s best for them to play regular games."

Realistically, however, those who don't find moves will struggle to force their way into the team as Sunderland will submit a 25-man squad to the Premier League. U21 players do not have to be registered but even so, a number of those on the fringes of the squad are likely to miss out on the list.

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