ALEX NEIL claims he has done all he can to persuade Sunderland’s owners of the need for further transfer additions, insisting he has “broken the door down” in an attempt to spur those above him into action.

The Black Cats boss has cut an increasingly frustrated figure when discussing transfer matters in the last few weeks, and while he was careful not to be too critical as he revisited the subject ahead of tomorrow's Championship game at Sheffield United this morning, his mounting unease at the current impasse was clear.

Neil has made six permanent additions this summer, as well as re-signing three members of last season’s promotion-winning group, but his squad still has major weaknesses, most notably in attack where Ross Stewart and Ellis Simms remain his only options.

There are also major issues to address in defence now, with Dan Ballard facing a lengthy lay-off after fracturing his foot and Carl Winchester also due to see a specialist in the next 24 hours to ascertain the extent of the back injury that will keep him out of tomorrow’s game.

Neil has previously stated that he is looking for ‘four or five more additions’ before the transfer window closes, but while reports in Central America suggest the club are close to agreeing a deal for Costa Rican teenager Jewison Bennett, additions capable of making an immediate impact on the first team still appear some way off.

That is an understandable worry with the transfer deadline just three weeks away, but Neil is adamant he could not be doing any more to try to move the process along.

“I can’t knock on the door anymore – there’s probably no door there anymore because I’ve pretty much bust it down,” said the Sunderland head coach. “Listen, we need to get reinforcements in, and we’re aware of that.

“It’s been an ongoing discussion, it’s not as though it’s something we’re just talking about now. I’ve been saying the same thing every press conference, it’s not as though anything has significantly shifted just now. What does significantly shift is that we’ve lost a key player for a length of time, which makes our job doubly difficult because now we’re lighter in that area where we had strength.

“We need a bit of help. We need more players in to give us a hand. At the moment, we’ve got key positions that if we get injuries in, we’re light to the point where, in some positions, we’ve arguably got no one to take their place. That’s difficult.

“All the frailties that everyone sees, or the areas where they might think, ‘We need strengthening there’, I can assure everybody that I’ve seen it long before anybody else. I see it every day. I know exactly where we are and I know exactly what we need to do, but it’s not easy getting it done. It’s difficult because that’s where we are.”

Ballard and Winchester are both due to see specialists in the next couple of days, with Neil reluctant to put a precise time frame on either’s absence at this stage.

There is a chance Ballard will not be available until after the World Cup break in December, with the summer signing from Arsenal having broken a bone in his foot in the early stages of Saturday’s draw with QPR, and Neil concedes the events of the last few days have made him reassess his transfer priorities.

The Northern Echo:

Sunderland have signed Ballard and Aji Alese to strengthen their backline this summer, as well as re-signing Bailey Wright, but this week’s injury developments have seriously reduced Neil’s defensive options.

When asked whether Ballard’s injury meant he might have to consider signing another centre-half, Neil said: “Yeah. Dan has been a key signing for us, he’s got mobility, he’s good on the ball, big and strong, his best years are ahead of him. He’s everything we want in a signing.

“Realistically, those players are really, really hard to come by, particularly for what we can afford. I could give you a list of players right now, in fact I’ve got a list in my draw, but the difficult part is, ‘What can you get for where we are and what we’re trying to do?’

“There’s two ways of going about the transfer window – you either pull your money out and go ‘Boom, we’ll take him’, or you do what we’re doing, which is you wait and hope something is going to become available. You hope you land on something that’s going to be right for you.”