Sunderland may have given up on signing Zorya Luhansk striker Nazariy Rusyn after the Championship outfit failed with a bid for the highly-rated Ukrainian.
With Ross Stewart unavailable and Ellis Sims, Joe Gelhardt and Amad Diallo long gone, there are obvious concerns about where the goals are going to come from at the Stadium of Light this season. Concerns which were not exactly eased during two successive 2-1 defeats to start the new Championship campaign.
Sunderland showed an interest in Zan Vipotnik but he chose Bordeaux. Their offer of £3.4 million, meanwhile, was not enough to tempt Dinamo Zagreb into selling Croatia U21 international Matija Frigan, now of Westerlo in Belgium.
The Northern Echo report that Sunderland also submitted ‘at least one bid’ for Nazariy Rusyn. But, after failing to come to an agreement with Zorya Luhansk, Tony Mowbray’s side are stepping up their pursuit of potential loan signings instead with just two weeks of the window remaining and time running out fast.
“As far as I know, Zorya is currently negotiating with Sunderland for Nazariy Rusyn,” Ukrainian reporter Volodymyr Zverov said earlier this week.
Sunderland miss out on another striker target
Rusyn scored 13 goals and set up six more in 30 games last season. Football24 believe that Sunderland’s latest bid was somewhere in the region of £2.5 million.
“We’re not hiding anyone down the corridor ready to bring them out for a scarf picture. But we’re having conversations (with striker targets),” Mowbray said ahead of Saturday’s Rotherham United clash.
“I’m pretty hopeful. Pretty confident. Whether (we can sign a new player in time for) Saturday… I’m not so sure.
“It looks as if the deals we could do might be loan deals. And the conundrum is always; If you get to the last day or two there are some amazing loan deals to be done from the Premier League. But if you’ve spent your money, you can’t do those deals.
“But it’s a dangerous scenario for teams. These are the discussions we’ve been having.”
Sunderland could come knocking for Everton’s Tom Cannon. The 20-year-old scored eight Championship goals on loan at Preston in the second half of last season.
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