Dick Advocaat hopes to be in a position to include two new midfielders, Yann M’Vila and Leroy Fer, in the Sunderland squad he will take to Leicester City on Saturday. Significantly, both players are tall, powerful and physically imposing.
M’Vila is scheduled to have a medical in the north-east on Monday before completing a move from Rubin Kazan. The 25-year-old France international, who spent last season on loan at Internazionale, has become embroiled in an acrimonious dispute with the Russian club and is desperate to depart. He had seemed set for another loan, with Dynamo Moscow, but Sunderland appear to have hijacked that deal and are confident of recruiting a player who cost Rubin Kazan £10m when he left Rennes two and a half years ago.
Fer is expected to arrive on a season’s loan from Queens Park Rangers. Despite suffering successive relegations from the Premier League with first Norwich and then QPR, the 25-year-old Holland international is highly rated and impressed against Sunderland last season. With the Loftus Road club anxious to cut a hefty wage bill Fer – who cost them £8m a year ago – has become available and Advocaat is at the front of the queue to complete a temporary transfer.
Whereas the six-foot tall M’Vila is much more of a defensive midfielder, Fer is attack-minded with an eye for goal. Yet at 6ft 2in a player known as “the bouncer” during his early career with Feyenoord and Twente is similarly powerful. He promises to be another welcome addition to a somewhat small, lightweight and one-paced Sunderland side whose collective lack of height and muscle shocked Gus Poyet’s successor as they narrowly escaped relegation.
Although the fee to be paid for M’Vila is unclear, Advocaat has evidently not been deterred by his underwhelming stint at Inter, where he made only eight appearances. His presence will allow Lee Cattermole to adopt a slightly more attacking role, but Sunderland remain very much in the hunt for a proven goalscorer to replace the Crystal Palace-bound Connor Wickham.
That striker is unlikely to be Moussa Sow after the club distanced themselves from reports suggesting they were pursuing the Fenerbahce forward. With a move for Blackburn’s Jordan Rhodes similarly unlikely it seems Advocaat will start the season reliant on Jermain Defoe, Steven Fletcher and Danny Graham in attack.
Goals from midfield were in woefully short supply last season so Sunderland’s manager will have been encouraged by the winner Jeremain Lens scored in their final pre-season friendly – a 1-0 victory at Hannover in Germany on Saturday. An £8.5m acquisition from Dynamo Kiev, Lens is Sunderland’s marquee signing of a summer which has also seen them recruit Younès Kaboul from Tottenham, Sebastián Coates from Liverpool and Celtic’s Adam Matthews.