SUNDERLAND are determined to move on both Cabral and Charis Mavrias this month in order to free up first-team squad places for potential additions.

Black Cats sporting director Lee Congerton has circulated both players’ names among a number of continental agents in an attempt to speed up their departure from the Stadium of Light.

Ideally, Congerton would like to engineer the departure of the duo on a permanent basis, but he will be willing to listen to loan offers if it means removing the pair from the wage bill for the second half of the season.

Gus Poyet continues to insist he does not have to lose players to generate the funds required to bring in a loan addition in the second half of the season, but the exit of Cabral and Mavrias would nevertheless increase the likelihood of Sunderland bolstering their own ranks ahead of the transfer deadline on February 2.

Cabral signed a three-year contract when he moved to Wearside as a free agent in the summer of 2013, so still has almost 18 months of his current deal to run.

The midfielder’s only two senior appearances for Sunderland came within the opening two weeks of the 2013-14 season, and a spell at Genoa in the second half of last season failed to result in the offer of a permanent contract from the Italian team.

Currently back on Wearside, the 26-year-old has made three starts for the development side during the current campaign, as well as featuring as an unused substitute for the first team on three more occasions, and is understood to have turned down the offer of at least one loan move to a Championship club.

Mavrias is also halfway through a three-year deal and, like Cabral, does not boast a single senior appearance this season.

In September, Poyet spoke of potentially reintroducing him to the first-team picture, but his subsequent lack of action has strengthened Sunderland’s desire to cut short his stay in the North-East.

His continued involvement with the Greece squad means there is interest from a number of clubs in his homeland, although it is unlikely that any would be able to pay his wages in full, something Sunderland would demand before they would agree to a loan deal.

Meanwhile, Poyet has defended his controversial decision to replace leading scorer Adam Johnson with youngster Mikael Mandron during Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Liverpool.

The move elicited a furious response from the Stadium of Light stands, but Poyet claims the recent birth of Johnson’s child was a key factor in the second-half switch.

“People do not have a clue,” said Poyet. “I don’t care what they think because if Mika scores, you do not ask me that question (about whether the substitution should have occurred).

“It is very easy when the game is over. I think it was the right decision. It was at the point where he (Johnson) could not go past people because he was so tired. Adam was tired. He had become a father and had not trained for two days.”