ANOTHER transfer period; another window revealing the simmering tensions that continue to exist behind the scenes at Sunderland. The club’s backroom structure functions fairly smoothly for the majority of the year, but whenever recruitment rises to the top of the agenda, the jostling for primacy begins.

In the wake of the last two matches against Liverpool and West Ham, Gus Poyet has delivered a fairly stinging assessment of his side’s attacking inadequacies. “Even I didn’t enjoy watching that,” he said at the weekend, leading some to interpret his words as a powerful criticism of the attacking players at his disposal.

To an extent, it was. No doubt Poyet would much prefer one of Steven Fletcher, Connor Wickham or Jozy Altidore to be hitting the back of the net on a regular basis, but his words over the last fortnight or so have not been meant for his strikers or even the Sunderland fans.

Instead, they have been directed at two men. The first is Black Cats owner Ellis Short, who will decide how much money is to be invested into the squad next month. The second is sporting director Lee Congerton, who will be charged with the task of spending it.

The duo effectively have Poyet’s fate in their hands, and while the Uruguayan might claim he is happy with the limitations of his ‘head coach’ role, his conduct whenever a transfer window approaches tells a different story.

Whereas Alan Pardew at Newcastle United appears to have accepted that he will have little or no input into the club’s recruitment policy, Poyet appears to find it much harder to work at arm’s length. Hence the constant reminders of how little creativity is on display at the moment, followed by a hasty disclaimer spelling out the limits of his involvement in the process of buying players.

“I want more quality,” said Poyet earlier this week. “Do I think I’ll get it? I don’t know. You know what is missing, and it is clear what we need to do. But that is down to recruitment.

“I am a head coach – I am not going to be a head coach when it suits people and a manager when it doesn’t.

“That side of it is down to recruitment, so if you ever get the chance to speak to anyone on the recruitment side and ask them about it, you are lucky. If you don’t, don’t ask me.”

Reading those words, you can almost feel the frustration seeping from the page. Poyet clearly feels that a couple of well-judged attacking signings could transform Sunderland’s season, but forwards are the most expensive players on a football field and having worked assiduously to bring the Black Cats’ finances under control in the last couple of years, it is unlikely that Short and Congerton will be breaking the bank next month.

Retaining Connor Wickham until 2019 was designated a priority at the end of the last transfer window, and while Sunderland’s supporters will hardly regard the 21-year-old’s new contract as a ‘new signing’, that is effectively what it is in terms of the budget for the next four years.

Assuming Wickham is earning £50,000-a-week, a figure that is likely to be a conservative estimate, this month’s agreement has effectively cost Sunderland more than £10m over the course of his contract. With that on the balance sheet, how much more money will be committed to the forward line?

This summer’s failure to re-sign Fabio Borini on loan created a gap in the budget, and Poyet can justifiably claim that Ricardo Alvarez was hardly a like-for-like replacement. There is every chance that Short would sanction another short-term loan deal next month, but it is hard to imagine Sunderland’s American owner throwing £8-10m at a striker, with the need to write off a similar amount in wages over the course of his deal.

Someone like Danny Ings, who is due to become a free agent in the summer and could therefore be deemed something of a bargain, would undoubtedly fit the bill, but Sunderland are hardly going to be the only club chasing the Burnley striker next month.

Limited targets, heavy competition, budgetary restraints - it all adds up to a difficult month in which to do business, which is hardly going to improve Poyet’s mood if his side continues to lack attacking potency over the festive period.

“I would love to play with wingers and two strikers,” he said. “At the moment, our wingers have some ability and can do certain things, but they cannot defend or run the quantity they need to run.

“One of the shapes West Ham like is with a diamond in the middle. Can you imagine us playing like that? I have already had three conversations with Lee Congerton – there are no problems on that score.”

No problems perhaps, but undoubtedly a degree of concern. Because if the sporting director does not deliver next month, the head coach will feel it is all the harder for him to achieve his aims.