DICK ADVOCAAT remains hopeful that Sunderland will make another couple of additions before the transfer window closes, with French midfielder Yann M’Vila now topping the club’s list of targets.

The Black Cats rounded off their pre-season programme with a 1-0 win over German side Hannover this afternoon, with £8m signing Jeremain Lens scoring the decisive goal midway through the second half.

Advocaat was pleased with his side’s much-improved performance in the HDI Arena, but with Connor Wickham on the verge of completing a £9m move to Crystal Palace, the Dutchman remains keen to add to his squad.

Talks with M’Vila are understood to be at an advanced stage, and the 25-year-old defensive midfielder could complete a move to the Stadium of Light ahead of next weekend’s Premier League opener at Leicester City.

The 25-year-old currently plays for Rubin Kazan, although his relationship with the Russian side has broken down following a loan spell at Inter Milan last season.

A proposed loan move to Dynamo Moscow has collapsed, even though M’Vila has spent some of the summer training with the Russian club, and having watched the Frenchman on a number of occasions, Sunderland’s recruitment team are ready to make a formal move next week.

“Will there be further arrivals? Wait and see,” said Advocaat. “We are still working on that. If we can get something else done, I am sure we will do it. If we cannot, we will do it with this group. But I’m still very hopeful that things will happen this month.”

Sunderland struggled as they slipped to a 2-0 defeat at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium on Wednesday, but Advocaat was much happier with his players’ performance this afternoon.

Younes Kaboul produced an accomplished performance as he made his first Sunderland start alongside Sebastian Coates at the heart of the back four, while Lens once again caught the eye as he made a series of dangerous bursts down the left-hand side.

“In the last five weeks, they have done a lot of physical work under quite difficult circumstances,” said Advocaat. “This was tough again today – it was nice for us sitting on the bench, but on the pitch it was really hot.

“But they did it well. I thought it was a fair result, and any time you come to Germany and get a win it’s a good thing. We could see some things during the game that we still have to improve, but we have a week to do that.

“That’s what we have to work on, making the team better. We didn’t give a lot of chances away today, which was a positive, but we still have to work on pressuring the ball earlier.”