Steve Bruce awaits news of transfer budget to strengthen Black Cats

May 22 2011 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

STEVE BRUCE will find out this week how much cash he will be handed to shore up Sunderland’s under- strength squad.

The Black Cats boss will hold talks with billionaire owner Ellis Short to hammer out transfer plans for the summer.

And Bruce will be looking for a sizeable warchest as he looks to bring in ‘eight or nine’ new faces to replace the likes of the already-departed Darren Bent, long-term injury victim Fraizer Campbell, out-of-contract Bolo Zenden and the four loan players – Sulley Muntari, John Mensah, Danny Welbeck and Nedum Onuoha – who will leave at the end of the season.

“There’s a board meeting, I am meeting the owner next week,” said Bruce. “After that, I’ll know what I’ve got.

“To be fair to the owner, and let’s be honest, he’s put a fair few quid in here already. But he knows the size of the squad is unhealthy at the moment and that there’s a bit of work to be done in the summer.

“We’ve lost a couple of midfielders and defenders through injuries, too, so it’s going to be a major, major time.

“We have to try to bring in another eight or nine, which I never envisaged. In January I thought I would need only one or two.”

Bruce has already got one summer signing lined up, with Ahmed Elmohamady’s loan set to convert to a £2m permanent deal.

And he is also looking at three Bosman transfer targets, one of which is Birmingham midfielder Seb Larsson.