Sunderland officials are in Madrid with Reinildo, with the former Atletico Madrid left-back having taken his medical in the Spanish capital ahead of signing a two-year deal with the Black Cats.
The 31-year-old is expected to link-up with his new teammates before the end of the week, though it’s not clear at this stage whether he’ll play any part in Saturday’s pre-season friendly double against South Shields and Gateshead.
Talbi, meanwhile, will complete his medical in the North East this afternoon having arrived in the North East this morning. Sunderland agreed a £19.5m deal with Club Brugge over the weekend, with the 20-year-old winger set to sign a five-year deal at the Stadium of Light.
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Reinildo and Talbi will follow Enzo Le Fee, Habib Diarra and Noah Sadiki through the door as Sunderland continue with what has been an ambitious and eye-catching start to the summer window.
And Black Cats bosses still want to further strengthen their squad in the coming weeks.
A goalkeeper remains a priority, with the future of Chelsea’s Djordje Petrovic still unclear. Sunderland want the 25-year-old Serbian but face competition from at least a handful of other clubs, including Galatasaray. Chelsea are willing to do business for £25m.
Armand Laurienté remains a leading attacking target and fresh reports claim the Frenchman wants to leave Italy and move to England this summer.
But sources in Italy claim Sunderland haven’t yet met Sassuolo’s asking price for the forward, who scored 18 goals and provided six assists in 33 appearances in the Italian second tier last season.
Sunderland were also linked with an ambitious move for Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Garcia over the weekend, but the 21-year-old won’t be leaving the Bernabéu this summer, with Xabi Alonso said to be unwilling to listen to any loan or permanent offers for the frontman.
Almeira’s Luis Javier Suárez is another striker who has been heavily linked with the Black Cats, but the 27-year-old is now said to have been identified as Sporting’s top target as they set about replacing Viktor Gyökeres, who is closing in on a move to Arsenal.
Meanwhile, Sunderland are also said to be one of the clubs monitoring Lens midfielder Neil El Aynaoui, who is also of interest to Leeds United, Wolves and a string of Italian clubs.
The Black Cats will continue to look to take advantage of new sporting director Florent Ghisolfi’s strong links in France, with Sunderland fighting off competition from a number of other clubs to win the battle to sign both Diarra and Sadiki.
The same can be said of Talbi, who had several options this summer after a stand-out season in Belgium, in which he also caught the eye playing in the Champions League.
Adil Aouchiche left Sunderland over the weekend to join Aberdeen on loan, and several other fringe players will depart in the coming weeks.
Pierre Ekwah is closing in on making his Saint-Etienne switch permanent on the back of his loan spell at the club last term.
Saint-Etienne suffered relegation to the French second tier last season but made it known early in the summer that they still intended to take up their option and sign Ekwah on a permanent deal.
With the midfielder’s exit imminent, Ekwah hasn’t reported back at Sunderland for the start of pre-season.
The likes of Nazariy Rusyn, Abdoullah Ba and Timothee Pembele are all available for transfer this summer, while Hibs are desperately pushing to sign Nectar Triantis on a permanent deal on the back of two successful loan spells.
Sunderland start their summer campaign with Saturday’s local friendlies before heading to Portugal for a pre-season training camp, where they’ll face Sevilla and Sporting on Saturday, July 19 and Monday, July 21.
