The club’s sporting director Kristjaan Speakman is already planning to bring in reinforcements at the beginning of the year to bolster the attack as the Black Cats look to push on from their amazing first half of the Premier League campaign.
Players are much more likely to want to join a club pushing for Europe rather than fending off relegation fears and this could be reflected in the business the club are about to do.
Only three teams have scored fewer goals than Regis Le Bris’ side this season, and that will likely influence their priorities for the winter window.
Brian Brobbey has started to look like a real gem for Sunderland, but the team are lacking goals, with Wilson Isidor having gone off the boil and worryingly, Sunderland’s top scorer with only four goals in 17 matches.
That will be rectified in some way or another in January, with the arrival of another striker potentially on the cards.
And it has been revealed that Artem Dovbyk could be that player, with reports from La Gazzetta dello Sport suggesting that Sunderland have been offered the Ukrainian forward.
Upon Dovbyk’s arrival at Roma, the club’s head coach Daniele De Rossi said: “He’s a great finisher, he knows how to link up with his teammate, and tactically speaking, he’s very clean.”
Since that £31million move in 2024, Doybyk was said to have taken time to settle in but he still managed 17 goals in his first campaign.
The Ukrainian has started just three of Roma’s Serie A encounters so far this season, though, with a January exit looking likely.
However, while his struggles have been there this season, Dovbyk scored 24 times for Girona in La Liga before his move to Italy – a tally which saw him finish as the league’s top scorer above the likes of Alexander Sorloth and Jude Bellingham.
Meanwhile, Sunderland’s Dan Neil continues to attract attention as the January transfer window starts to warm up.
Leicester and West Brom are the latest sides reported to have joined the chase for the central midfielder with Coventry City said to be the frontrunners.
Neil captained the Black Cats to promotion via the play-offs last season but has since found Premier League game time hard to come by at the Stadium of Light.Neil is out of contract in the summer so it’s likely that Sunderland would be happy to cash in on him in the mid-term window.
A number of other Sunderland players are being looked at with a view to a move, in particular Anthony Patterson and Dennis Cirkin who, like Neil, have had limited opportunities since the influx of 15 players in the summer.