Sunderland still have around four weeks left to bring more players into the Stadium of Light before the summer transfer window slams shut.

Kristjaan Speakman has brought in Ellis Simms on loan and Daniel Ballard, Alex Bass, Jack Clarke, Leon Dajaku, and Aji Alese on permanent deals.

Alex Neil recently claimed that he wants to sign up to five more players to improve his squad before the end of the window.

He told the Sunderland Echo: "We've still got four, potentially five that we want to bring in before the window ends.
"We need to make sure the squad is competitive and not only that, they brought four or five really fresh lads on who know the level, and that can really make a difference.

Last week, MLS reporter Tom Bogert claimed that the club are keen on a swoop for the USA international, Tweeting:

"Middlesbrough have made an offer to Mallorca for USMNT forward Matthew Hoppe, per sources. Offer is around $3m (including add-ons). Sunderland interested as well. Hoppe, 21, has six caps with the USMNT. Joined Mallorca last summer from Schalke."

By striking a deal to sign the attacker, potentially for £2.5m ($3m), Speakman could land Neil his own version of Tottenham striker Harry Kane.

Talent scout Jacek Kulig has stated that he is a similar type of player to the England captain and listed his strengths as; finishing, instinct, heading, hold up play, off the ball movement, composure, ambidexterity, whilst dubbing him "complete".

In his Bundesliga career for Schalke, he played 1309 minutes and scored six goals and provided one assist. This means that he averaged a goal contribution nearly once every other game, whilst the attacker has also scored once in six caps for his country, which suggests that he has the potential to make a big impact at the top end of the pitch.

At the age of 21, he is nowhere near the peak of his career and it is unrealistic to expect him to be firing in 20+ goals per season in a major European league. In the season before he turned 21, Kane scored three goals in ten Premier League matches for Tottenham, having scored two goals in 13 matches in the Championship on loan at Leicester the year before.

He was then able to develop into the player who has scored 183 top-flight goals in England and found the back of the net 50 times for the Three Lions.

Hoppe could now continue his development by coming to Sunderland and working with Neil to fulfil the potential that Kulig sees in him to become a similar player to Kane.

If he can hit his stride and start firing in the goals on a more consistent basis then he would be a fantastic player for the Black Cats and their very own complete number nine, having already shown promise at the top level in Germany.