THE pool of strikers potentially available to Sunderland has shrunk significantly in the last couple of days as rival clubs make their own moves ahead of Monday’s transfer deadline.

The Black Cats have spent most of the last month trying to recruit a new forward, but headed into the final three days of the window still attempting to make a breakthrough.

Sunderland held preliminary discussions with Ajax over Chuba Akpom, but it quickly became clear that a move would be extremely difficult to pull off and the former Middlesbrough forward yesterday completed a switch to French side Lille.

Lille progressed to the latter stages of the Champions League earlier this week, and with clubs able to add new players to their squads for the knockout stages of the European competition, Akpom was always going to head to the French top-flight rather than move back into the English Championship.

Sunderland are also understood to have been one of the clubs who had an interest in Will Lankshear, but the Tottenham youngster yesterday sealed a season-long loan move to West Brom.

READ MORE:

• Sunderland's stance on Tommy Watson explained as Regis Le Bris responds to Brighton bid

• Sunderland confirm Adil Aouchiche's exit after day of negotiations

• Regis Le Bris' attacking warning as clock ticks down on Sunderland's striker search

Former Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray persuaded Lankshear to move to the Hawthorns, successfully beating off competition from a number of Championship clubs in order to secure the services of the 19-year-old.

Louie Barry is another attacker to have been linked with the Black Cats this month, but having returned to his parent club, Aston Villa, following a successful spell at Stockport County in the first half of the season, the youngster has subsequently moved on to join Hull City on loan.

Barry will spend the remainder of the campaign at the MKM Stadium, with Hull having been extremely active in the transfer market this month as they look to secure Championship survival in the final three months of the season.

Sunderland continue to track available targets of their own, and will hope to make a significant breakthrough in the next 48 hours.

Matija Frigan remains a leading option, although an initial round of talks with Belgian club Westerlo failed to result in an agreement over the Croatian.

Westerlo would be willing to allow Frigan to leave this month if the price was right, but Sunderland’s recruitment team are adamant they will not be overpaying for the 21-year-old.

Preston’s Emil Riis is another target, with the 26-year-old having struggled to hold down a starting spot with his current club in the first half of the season.

Riis is out of contract in the summer, meaning Preston could be persuaded to cash in this month if they think there is a good chance of the Danish striker moving on come the end of the season. However, again, Sunderland will not want to pay over the odds for a player who is set to become a free agent in four months’ time.

The Black Cats have also been linked with Besiktas forward Semih Kilicsoy, although if they were to sign the 19-year-old on a loan basis this month, they would also have to commit to an automatic permanent transfer in the event of promotion that would potentially be worth more than £15m.