SUNDERLAND ‘tried their best’ to do the business they intended during the summer transfer window, according to head coach Gustavo Poyet.

Poyet signed eight new players before the September 1 deadline but was still left frustrated in his bid to secure the services of Fabio Borini, pictured below, from Liverpool.

Borini’s decision to reject the offer to complete a return to Wearside in a £14m deal means that Sunderland are still the striker short of what the boss would like.

The Northern Echo:

But Poyet is keen to move on and is satisfied with the business that was done, including the deadline day arrivals of Liverpool defender Sebastian Coates and Inter Milan winger Ricky Alvarez on season long loans.

The Black Cats boss, who has a fully fit squad for the visit of Tottenham on Saturday, said: “It is very easy to say that I am happy because then everyone would be delighted. I’m alright, but I wouldn’t say I am happy.

“We expected to have a certain number of players, we were close to doing a couple of important things, but we tried. We tried our best. What we got was the best we could do. I don’t want to reflect on how it went because it is not fair.”

Ideally Borini would have arrived to challenge for a place up front and out wide if that is where Poyet decided to play him. Instead, though, he has to come up with a way of getting the best out of the forwards he has at his disposal.

Sunderland have drawn two and lost one of their opening three Premier League fixtures and their strikers have failed to score.

Poyet said: “We were looking for a striker with the ability to play wide. More and more in the world you can find players who adapt to those positions. We have a few wingers now that we are working on to get in to the box. We are trying to adapt our systems to see what works better for us.

“I am trying to find the solution to win games. I am trying to pick the right team. We have to try to win games and find the right balance. I need to make sure I make the right decisions. The idea is that they put themselves there, it’s quite simple.”

And he believes Alvarez, who is 6ft 2in, could be a real force if he settles in quickly. Poyet said: “People will think that Ricky is the substitute for Borini, but he is not. Ricky is a player who is exciting on the ball, he will create things on his own but he is not a proper scorer.

“We can’t say he is a replacement for the other one. He is going to play in a position where Fabio played last year, but I don’t know if he will play on the left all of the time.”