SAM ALLARDYCE is considering an approach from Blackburn Rovers for Danny Graham as the Sunderland boss waits for some good news in his attempts to bolster his squad before the latest ‘big game’ of the season.

Allardyce and his head of recruitment, Martyn Glover, are putting feelers out in a number of places, while Lorient defender Lamine Kone and Swansea forward Andre Ayew are high in his thinking.

Contact has also been made with Marseille over the availability of midfielder Alaixys Romao, although there is competition for his signature from Toulouse and Al-Ahli Jeddah from Saudi Arabia.

Having already persuaded Dame N’Doye and Jan Kirchhoff to move to the Stadium of Light this month, Allardyce wants to follow those up with more new faces to boost Sunderland’s chances of staying up.

But they have learned that Ayew could cost around the £14m mark and even if they agreed to pay the majority of that up front they could then face a battle to persuade him to swap one relegation fight for another, amid suggestions Liverpool are weighing up a move.

The number of new faces attracted to Wearside this month could depend on the outgoing deals which Allardyce is able to pull off; as well as Costel Pantilimon's proposed move to Watford, the likeliest departures are from the list of those out of contract.

Both Graham and Steven Fletcher will become free agents in the summer so if attractive offers were presented to Sunderland for either then Allardyce would be prepared to listen carefully.

Fletcher has regularly been linked with a return north of the border where Celtic have maintained a strong interest, but they would struggle to match his wage at the Stadium of Light.

But Blackburn are known to be serious about taking Graham to Ewood Park and there have been discussions between the two clubs. Nothing has been agreed at this stage, though, but Rovers boss Paul Lambert hopes to pull off a loan deal for the rest of the year.

Graham was a starter ahead of Fabio Borini, Duncan Watmore and Fletcher at Tottenham on Saturday but Sunderland are likely to let him move on if they can make further progress on the transfer front. Striking a deal with Swansea and Ayew would be Allardyce’s ideal solution.

The Sunderland boss – who could still resurrect a loan deal for Kone after a £5m transfer broke down last week – is desperate for further progress before Saturday’s visit of Bournemouth, knowing three points could be crucial ahead of a run of fixtures against Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United.

Defeat at Tottenham, the 14th of this league season, has dropped the Black Cats back into the bottom three and they are six points behind the Cherries, who many fancied for the drop at the start of the campaign.

Allardyce’s assistant Paul Bracewell said: “We've got to make sure we're right, and make sure we get ourselves prepared for Bournemouth. Like I said, they're all big games. It's what we do that's most important. Get ourselves right and get back into winning ways.

“It was a difficult afternoon at Tottenham for us on Saturday. Up to 35 minutes it was hard work but we kept them at bay, Jordan Pickford made some good saves and we always felt that if we had an opportunity we might be able to nick one, which we did.

“Then we shot ourselves in the foot straight after. But we just have to dust ourselves down and go again. They're all big games, they're all massive games.”