WAHBI KHAZRI was expected on Wearside last night to complete a £9m move to Sunderland during the next 48 hours as manager Sam Allardyce recruits for a season that is purely about “survival”.

The Black Cats are on the verge of a fifth January signing to boost the fight to beat the drop after striking an agreement with Bordeaux for the Tunisian playmaker. He will hold advanced talks and undergo a medical throughout today.

Allardyce - who has learned of interest from Sampdoria and Lazio in Fabio Borini, who is keen to stay in England - was fed up waiting for Swansea to do business for their impressive forward Andre Ayew so he switched his attention to another player he has monitored over the last couple of years.

Khazri first caught the Sunderland manager’s eye during his time with Bastia – who he helped to promotion - but his performances for Bordeaux over the last 18 months have attracted attention from more Premier League clubs.

The attacker, who turns 25 on February 8, has scored 14 goals in 38 appearances for Bordeaux and has six this season, albeit as a central striker, despite a preference to play more of a supporting role.

There are not expected to be any further hiccups with the deal – with Bordeaux stating “he has a beautiful opportunity with the English club” as they bid him farewell – and provided the medical goes well he should be in contention to face Liverpool at Anfield next Saturday.

By then Allardyce hopes to have at least one more new face, with Arsenal full-back Mathieu Debuchy an option. Steven Fletcher and Jordi Gomez are available to leave after a month when Sunderland have already signed Dame N’Doye, Jan Kirchhoff, Steve Harper and Lamine Kone.

But the imminent acquisition of France-born Tunisia international Khazri presents the biggest investment under Allardyce’s short reign and the players have all been on his own wishlist, after years of a sporting director having the final say on transfers at Sunderland.

Ellis Short, the Sunderland owner, was happy for a change of tact after a poor recruitment record from the days when Lee Congerton was director of football and Roberto de Fanti was the sporting director.

Allardyce said: “I had a director of football called Billy Bingham at Blackpool, many, many years ago, so I’ve experienced a director of football before. It depends how good the director of football is and how good the relationship you have with him is.

“One of the good things about Billy as a director of football was he’s a football man. One of the big difficulties other managers have experienced when I’ve talked to them is the director of football hasn’t been a football man and that’s caused them massive problems along the way.

“Whatever you have to deal with at a football club you know before you arrive. If you can’t live with it, don’t join them, if you can, you do.”

The departure of Congerton has allowed Allardyce, chief scout Martyn Glover and head of performance Mark Taylor to work together on the incomings and outgoings this month. Allowing Sebastian Coates to head for Sporting Lisbon with a view to a £3m summer deal was, ultimately, Allardyce’s call.

“It depends on the player going out and whether he fancies it or not - whether he fancies the club that wants him. That’s the difficulty,” said Allardyce. “Sometimes you’re asking a player to pack up his whole life and move to another country, like Seb.

“He’s accepted the move and he’s packing up his whole life, his wife, his girlfriend or whatever, to jump on a plane to another country, go into a hotel and get picked for the team where he’ll be expected to play very well.

“Players have to make decisions for what they consider best for themselves and their families. Sometimes they do get an awful lot of stick with people asking do they really want to play football? They all want to play football in my experience. But it has to be right for them and their family. If not, they’ll tell you no.”

The Black Cats remain four points adrift of safety, so there is a lot of work to be done to preserve top-flight status.

Allardyce was satisfied to have been able to do some business in his first transfer window at the Stadium of Light. He said: “I wouldn’t necessarily say I enjoy it but it’s a necessity to try to achieve what we all want. This year, sadly, is just to survive. That is now the bottom line.

“When I first came it was about more than that, I thought we could achieve more than that. I said that to the players but we haven’t got ourselves in a better position, so it is about survival now.”

Sunderland have allowed Will Buckley to extend his loan at Birmingham until the end of the season.