Sunderland failed in transfer deadline day swoop for 19-cap international midfielder | OneFootball

Play-off chasing Championship side Sunderland were active on transfer deadline day like many clubs in their division - but it has been revealed that they failed to land Rangers midfielder José Cifuentes to add to their other signings.

The Black Cats were able to bring winger Romaine Mundle back to England following a brief stint with Standard Liege of Belgium - a move which fit the club's criteria of signing young, promising talents who could make an impact straight away in the first-team.

Callum Styles also added some international experience in the middle of the park as he arrived on loan from Barnsley with an option to buy, but the squad could have looked even stronger if Cifuentes had re-united with Mick Beale.

According to a report from journalist Alan Nixon via his Patreon page, Beale and the Wearside club's recruitment team made a play late on deadline day on Thursday to try and get Cifuentes - who has been capped 19 times for the Ecuador national team and played at the 2022 FIFA World Cup - to come to the Stadium of Light.

It was Beale who was in charge of Rangers when the 24-year-old signed from Los Angeles FC of the MLS in the summer, with the Ibrox outfit paying £1.2 million to bring the South American to Glasgow.

However, just five months on, Beale has tried to land Cifuentes once more as he has fallen out of favour under new Rangers head coach Philippe Clement - this time though, Sunderland's head coach has been rebuffed.

Nixon has reported that Cifuentes has turned down the move in favour of a switch to Brazil, where Cruzeiro are poised to land his services - Italian transfer guru Fabrizio Romano has confirmed a verbal deal is in place between the two clubs and the move is set to be completed in due course.

Cifuentes has appeared 20 times for Rangers in all competitions this season, but it has been clear that he is not really in the plans of Clement.

He has not appeared in the Scottish Premiership since December, when he was sent off for two bookings against Dundee, and he has been in just one league matchday squad since.

Having started in three of Rangers' four UEFA Champions League qualifying matches earlier in the season under Beale, as well as a handful of Premiership and UEFA Europa League matches, Cifuentes' season has already tailed off in Scotland, but it won't be Sunderland that hand him the game-time he needs in 2024.

Whilst Sunderland did end up signing Callum Styles on February 1, and he does add to their midfield options, what they needed the most was a defensive midfielder who can break up the play and allow the other engine room operators to focus on creating attacks.

Since Corry Evans suffered a serious knee injury early on in 2023, the Wearsiders have been missing someone who can be strong in the tackle and is willing to stay back and let his team-mates go forward.

Pierre Ekwah has been doing the most of that, but the Frenchman is still forward-thinking and likes a shot from distance - what has been lacking the most though is experience in that area of the pitch.