Keane eyes new blood

Sunderland boss Roy Keane has admitted that the club are moving a step closer to sealing their first signing of the January transfer window shortly. Sunderland have slipped into the relegation zone again.

"We are hopeful, certainly with one player signing in the next 24 hours," he said.

"Hopefully that will then get the ball rolling for us to get in one or two more.

"We know where we are short at the moment, and that's why we are looking to try and strengthen.

"We've one or two playing with injuries, and one or two playing out of position like Dean Whitehead.

"So we're certainly being stretched, and we're only halfway through the season.

"But I've said it since pre-season when we went into the season definitely short of a couple of players, and then we had a few serious injuries to compound that."