MIKE Dodds accepts Sunderland's transfer model will always divide opinion but says he prefers to focus on the hits rather than misses of the club's recruitment.

Over the last couple of seasons, the Black Cats have focused on signing young untapped talent who can be nurtured into first team regulars on Wearside.

The model has come under fire this season, with Sunderland failing over the last three transfers windows to bring in a much-needed proven centre-forward and with the Black Cats looking set to fall way short in their bid to repeat last season's top six finish in the Championship.

Dodds understands the criticism but says Sunderland also deserve huge credit for some of their recruitment, such as the capture of Jack Clarke, who has established himself as one of the second tier's leading lights, Dan Ballard and Jobe Bellingham.

And he believes the Black Cats should also be proud of their recent record in developing their own academy talent, with Dan Neil and Anthony Patterson establishing themselves as first team regulars and Chris Rigg breaking through in the last 12 months.

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"The model is always going to divide opinion and it will continue to divide opinion," said Dodds.

"With recruitment, and it is the same at every single football club in the country, sometimes you get it right and sometimes you don't. Sometimes a player moves and it doesn't quite work, and then he moves to another club and he flies and you go, 'what happened there?' Sometimes players just have good fits and sometimes it doesn't quite work.

"I keep going back to Jack Clarke, he was playing Under-21 football at Spurs, he'd had some loans that didn't go very well but he wasn't a bad player, it just didn't work out.

"He came to us in League One and he helped us get out of the league, but he wasn't the player we know now. People will talk about the model but for everyone that hasn't quite worked, we could sit here and name the ones that have.

"You can talk about Jack, Dan Ballard, and then there's developing your own as well. Dan Neil - every time we go and see the opposition after the game, the opposition manager nine times out of 10 is talking about Dan Neil. 'What a player he is, one of your own', lots of clubs would love to have one of those.

"Anthony Patterson, Jobe Belllingham..if he decided he wanted to leave the club tomorrow how much would he be worth at 18?

"That's the positive of it, but of course there are always going to be the ones that don't quite work out. It'll continue to be a discussion point, when it works and when it doesn't."