TONY MOWBRAY is confident Sunderland will complete two more attacking signings before the transfer window closes – and has revealed the club are once again targeting overseas recruits as they look to bolster their frontline.

The Black Cats will kick off the new Championship season against Ipswich Town on Sunday with teenage summer signing Hemir their only available senior centre-forward.

The anticipated return of Ross Stewart in late September, assuming the Scot remains on Wearside beyond the end of the month, will help improve the situation, but Mowbray has spent most of the summer outlining the need for experienced attacking signings.

Earlier this week, the Black Cats boss revealed the club had tabled bids for at least two forwards, and while he does not expect a breakthrough ahead of Sunday’s season-opener, he is confident a couple of new faces will have been added to the squad before the window swings shut.

“We need to add a couple more players, and we will be trying to do that, not by Sunday, but definitely by the end of this month,” said Mowbray. “By the time the window closes, we need to, and I’m pretty sure we will, have some new additions to help the current squad.

“We still need some attacking options. Semedo (Hemir) has scored some good goals this pre-season, he’s got himself into some good positions and headed in a couple of good goals, but he is a young boy. I don’t think we can hang our hat on him for 46 games, we need some reinforcements at the top end of the pitch, and I am pretty sure that they are coming.”

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Mowbray went on to reveal that Sunderland are currently targeting attacking players based overseas, with the club hierarchy clearly feeling that foreign markets offer better value-for-money than trying to sign players from either of England’s top two divisions.

However, while the likes of Hemir, Jobe Bellingham and Nectarios Traintis were signed earlier this summer at a very early stage of their development, Mowbray expects the next batch of arrivals to have considerably more experience under their belt.

“They’re likely to be names you’d have to follow world football to know, I would suggest to you,” he said. “But I think they'll probably be a little more experienced, they're not going to be kids who've never played men's football before.

“They’ll be footballers who are very talented, just on the cusp of their international teams, playing in a league that we think we can go to and take their best players. We don’t pay the very top dollar in this division, but we feel we can find really talented players and give them that exposure, and then we can have a real footballer on our hands.

“It’s not about getting household names because they already have that reputation and they can earn beyond what we pay. The idea is to get these players and turn them into household names over a year or two.”