Sunderland's summer transfer window priority and Alexandre Mendy update revealed | OneFootball

There's one area of the pitch that the club are now focusing in on.

Highlights

Signing a striker has become Sunderland's top priority for the rest of the summer transfer window as details of talks for target Alexandre Mendy are revealed.

The desire to not see a repeat of last season, when the club's centre-forward options weren't firing at all, has been made clear by the Black Cats. Finding their leading man for next season is now top of their summer to-do list, according to the Northern Echo.

Their first target for the summer was seemingly to add experience to their midfield options. Signing former Preston North End captain Alan Browne, who captained the side in his debut game for the club (a 2-1 win over CD Eldense), certainly ticked that box. He has made 374 league appearances since debuting for the Lilywhites in the 2013-14 campaign.

Regis Le Bris previously stated that he wanted to add a bit of know-how and nous to the centre of the pitch, which were qualities that Tony Mowbray wanted to bring in last summer.

There are also plans in place for the club to bring in new members to its backroom staff. Some of the new head coach's previous assistants from Lorient were said to be nearing a move to the North East but Le Bris has said anyone who joins his coaching team wouldn't be coming from his homeland of France, as per the Sunderland Echo.

Plans for on-field recruiting are becoming a bit clearer though.

Sunderland make a striker signing their top priority

The Northern Echo have reported that acquiring a new number nine is now firmly at the forefront of the Black Cats hierarchy's mind.

Their most recent links to a forward option have come in the form of Caen's striker Mendy. The 30-year-old has been the point of talks between Sunderland and the French side, and reports from across the channel have suggested that Caen have already rejected a bid from the Black Cats for Mendy - a bid worth under €1 million (~ £850,000).

There is also supposed interest from Saudi Arabia in the striker, who scored 22 goals in Ligue 2 last season. However, he is said to prefer a move to England, as per the Northern Echo.

Sunderland are also set to face competition in their bid to sign another one of their striker targets, Divin Mubama, who is being chased by French side Lyon.

Sunderland's striker search would have been much harder in previous seasons

It feels like the past year has really opened the eyes of those at the top of the club. Before last season, the previous two campaigns had gone swimmingly. They won the League One play-offs in the 21/22 season and then reached the post-season tournament again in the Championship in the following term.

It shouldn't be a surprise that, off the back of this success, the likes of chairman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and sporting director Kristjaan Speakman were insistent on doubling down on their youth-first methodology, as it had done them very good up until that loss to Luton Town in the semi-final of the play-offs in 2023.

Mowbray identified, after that game at Kenilworth Road, that more experience was needed, but his ideas were largely ignored, and the lack of expertise in the second tier came back to bite them last time out.

Last season, where they ended up finishing 16th in the league, combined with Le Bris' openness to the idea of adding players who are older than 24, or ones who have a lot of games under their belt, showed the likes of Louis-Dreyfus that their methodology wasn't flawless.

The previous summer was one filled with empty chases of young striking options, which ended up being a big problem for them. They likely would have done the same this time around if last season wasn't such a disaster, and if the new boss hadn't arrived.