It’s reported that Sunderland have made a £14m bid for Pascal Chimbonda, Younes Kaboul, Steed Malbranque, and Teemu Tainio.
There’s nothing official at present, however, Sunderland manager Roy Keane said on his club’s official website yesterday that signings are close.
He said: “I’m very hopeful, the players we have targeted have not moved to any other clubs.
“Of course we’d have liked the deals done as early as possible, it would have been nice to have had them in place by now but we just have to put up with it.
“[Chairman] Niall [Quinn] and [chief executive] Peter [Walker] are busy doing the deals and fingers crossed we’ll have some new players in place by this time next week.
“I’m fairly confident that we’ll have one or two new ones here over the next few days, to join us for the second part of our Portugal trip.
“I’m hopeful of getting five of six new faces in by the start of the season.”