SUNDERLAND director Dave Jones has been pushing Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Kristjaan Speakman to sign another striker during the January transfer window.

The Black Cats currently boast three frontline strikers – Wilson Isidor, Eliezer Mayenda and Aaron Connolly – as well as reserve forward Nazariy Rusyn, but none have really established themselves as regular goalscorers in the first half of the season.

Isidor boasts five goals in 16 Championship appearances, but was initially signed to play on the right-hand side rather than as a ‘number nine’. Mayenda has not scored since mid-August, while Connolly, who arrived as a free agent in the autumn, has claimed one goal in eight outings.

Regis Le Bris claims the Sunderland hierarchy are yet to make any firm decisions about their January plans, but Jones, who is a non-executive director at Sunderland as well as being a presenter on Sky Sports, is keen to see another forward arrive next month.

Speaking on the ‘Not The Top 20 Podcast’, Jones said: “I keep reminding Kristjaan and Kyril that Ipswich Town, I mean, how many strikers did they have last season, in their promotion season? Off the top of my head, I would say at least four, maybe more than that.

“They were able to rotate, and you'd often see Kieran McKenna (Ipswich's manager) get to 70 minutes and change his entire frontline. Quite often, they would be scoring goals in 90-plus minutes as a result of that.

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“I don't think you can ever have too many (strikers), would be my view, but I’m not the one that has to answer to the budgets at the end of the day.”

Sunderland’s owners could also find themselves fielding offers for a number of their own players next month, with Jobe Bellingham, Chris Rigg and Dan Neil all having attracted considerable attention.

Borussia Dortmund are reportedly interested in offering Bellingham the chance to follow in the footsteps of his elder brother, Jude, by moving to the Bundesliga, but Jones is in no doubt as to the midfielder’s importance to Sunderland.

“His development is way beyond expectation,” said Jones. “I think we have seen at Sunderland how different he's been from one season to the next. He's still only 19, so who's to say that in a year's time he might have gone up another couple of levels?

“A year after that, he's gone up another couple of levels? He's shown a versatility that I think people weren't aware of. He played up front last season, he also played ten, he also played eight, and now we've seen him play six this season and have that more disciplined role. He can do all of it.”