KS ON TRANSFER WINDOW

It's no secret Sunderland have had a busy summer as we had to improve the squad to compete in the Premier League. We've signed players that we never could have imagined would ever play in a Sunderland kit and Kristjann Speakman has shared his pleasure on the business we have conducted.

PLEASED

"We're really pleased with the outcome. We're really pleased with the players, the mix, the balance, the alignment, the compatibility and also the competition, because you need on the training field every day for there to be a competition for the places to be able to elicit the highest output performance from the players. And there's going to be things for the season where we're going to need depth, we're going to need the players that maybe haven't had the opportunity to play or haven't got in a team to be able to step in and for the level of team not to drop. That is going to be really important because the Premier League is a really competitive competition and we've seen in the opening games how strong the teams are and we're really pleased that obviously we've got some good outcomes so far."

DIFFERENT BEAST

"I think that this challenge, and I've said lots to the guys in the building, you know, solving this problem at the Premier League will be a lot different to solving the previous problems of getting out of League One or trying to build a team to be competitive in the Championship."

STUCK TO THE PLAN

"And there's a huge difference between the Championship and the Premier League. So for us, it's been about trying to adjust and adapt really, really quickly after the final. Make sure we understand what we're doing, why we're doing it, where we're going. Are we planned and aligned? I think once you're planned and aligned, you can then be really quick and effective in the market."

FLORENT GHISOLFI

"Flo [Ghisolfi] coming on board has been a huge positive for us because we've been able to do multiple deals at the same time because we've got more capability. And also what you've then got is a really healthy mix of different opinions and discussions around players that you can quite quickly get to a consensus on, right, this is all we're going for. And I think that's good in any high-performance organisation to be able to do. We're really pleased with the output, and I think we've got some really, really strong players for the Premier League who supporters are going to enjoy watching."

EXCITING TIMES

"I think at the minute everyone's super excited, which is exactly what we want. Everyone's enthused by the club. I think there's a lot of discussion nationally and internationally about where the team's at, the direction of travel the club's going on. That's where we always wanted the club to be. But time will tell. [We’ve played] Three games, we've obviously won two games. The team's performed really well, but we have to perform really well over a much bigger tranche of games, and that's where obviously the reflections will take place. We've got every confidence in Regis, who has signed a new contract and that was hugely important for us. A lot of confidence in the coaching team. We've built out the backroom team, if you like, and the support services to make sure that we can try to be consistent on and off the pitch, and hopefully at the end of the season we'll be reflecting on a positive outcome."