Sunderland are planning moves to bring a number of new faces to the Stadium of Light this summer.

What's the talk?

That's according to a claim made by Kristjaan Speakman, with the Sunderland sporting director revealing in an interview with the Sunderland Echo that the club's recruitment team are still working hard behind the scenes in order to secure several new signings before the closure of the transfer window at the end of August.

Speakman also revealed the type of players he and the Black Cats backroom staff are interested in signing, as well as the style of football the club's hierarchy would like to install at the Stadium of Light.

In the interview, the 42-year-old said: "We want to make a few more signings to address the areas where we feel we're in need of extra players. Stuart [Harvey] and the guys and as a team, we're working really hard to do that.

"We want more acquisitions. It is a difficult marketplace at the minute. We've found ourselves with offers to clubs and players and at the minute, not been able to get them over the line.

"Ultimately what we're trying to do is identify quality over quantity, and I think every Sunderland fan would respect that.

He continued: "You want to try and change the style of play to something that people want to come and watch, and I think you can tangibly see we're working towards that as we change the personnel, the head coach gets time to work with the players etc."

"We've been successful in acquiring some of the targets we set out to get, and we feel we've been really diligent in how we've gone about that in terms of the types of players and how they fit it into our playing style.

"We want to bring a youthful squad to Sunderland but it's also about getting a blend."

Music to the ears of fans

With Sunderland's fall from the Premier League to the third tier of English football being a tale of uninspiring but extremely expensive transfers, vastly overpaid and underperforming players, disgraceful mismanagement from owners and coaches alike and, as a result of the aforementioned, disastrous performances on the pitch, Speakman's latest comments must be music to the ears of Mackems.

Indeed, with the sporting director suggesting that he and his recruitment team are targeting younger talents with bright futures ahead of washed up and disinterested older players, this would appear to be one of the first sensible steps the club has made in the transfer market for a very long time.

Furthermore, with the 42-year-old also stating that he wants to install a brand of football that Sunderland fans actually want to come and watch - something that has most likely been debatable in recent years - through the signing of exciting and talented players, this too should be ticking a lot of boxes for the club's fanbase.

However, as has been seen at Sunderland in the past, things are much easier said than done, and, ultimately, Speakman will be judged on whether or not he can pull his intentions off.

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