IF last month’s transfer-deadline day had occurred four or five years ago, Tony Mowbray would have been locked in the Sunderland manager’s office tied to the phone. The Black Cats were desperately trying to sign a striker, and Mowbray would have been ringing around every agent and chief executive he knew to see if anyone was available.

Times, it is fair to say, have changed. Mowbray was involved in the recruitment process that played out on Wearside last month, but when it came to the deadline-day attempt to secure a replacement for the injured Ross Stewart, it was sporting director Kristjaan Speakman and the rest of Sunderland’s scouting and recruitment team that were the key players.

The new demarcation of roles was in place when Alex Neil was in charge, and it always felt as though Mowbray’s predecessor was fighting against the system he had become part of. Recruitment felt like a battleground under Neil, with the Scotsman’s hurried departure to Stoke City effectively an acknowledgement that he had lost the fight. Mowbray replaced Neil in the final few days of the summer transfer window, and is much more sanguine about the way in which his responsibilities have changed.

“It’s different because I’m not as involved as I have been for 20-odd years,” explained the Teessider, who first cut his managerial teeth as a caretaker boss at Ipswich Town more than two decades ago. “I’ve been kept in the loop, but I’m not in the heart of it. I’m not in the recruitment department room making the calls.

“That’s fine. I’m absolutely not pushing back. I’m very much involved in the football club, but I’m not at the core of it making those calls. Football is changing, we all have to accept that.

“It’s the first time I’ve been the head coach. So how was it (deadline day) for me? Alright. If I'd woken up on Wednesday morning and we'd signed two strikers it would have been great, but if we don’t sign any strikers, you get on with it. I wasn’t influencing it.”

That is not to say that Mowbray is completely detached from the process of identifying and signing players. He works with Sunderland’s scouting team to flag up areas of the squad that need improving, and casts his eye over potential recruits, many of whom have to be assessed and evaluated on a TV or laptop screen because they are based overseas.

He offers his opinion, along with those of his fellow coaches, but ultimately accepts the final decision of whether a player will be signed or not is out of his hands. It wouldn’t be for everyone, but with the parameters having been clearly laid out before he agreed to take charge, Mowbray is at ease with the way in which things are working.

“I knew the targets,” he continued. “It’s not just me or Kristjaan, it’s the coaching staff. It’s all pertinent that we all feel engaged in what we're trying to do. We all know what the message is and the direction the club want to go and the clear picture it’s got and the vision we buy into. I was made very clear of that.

“Regarding players, when I say I'm not involved, I know the name of the players, I know the type, I watch the presentations, I see all the young French kids, while I haven't watched them live, I've seen all their footage in the presentations that the recruitment department present. I do look at the presentations and talent and know how we want to play.”

And once the players arrive, Mowbray accepts it is his job to try to nurture and develop them, and integrate them into a team that simultaneously needs to be achieving positive results in the Championship.

“I don’t let other people just tell me how we’re going to play,” he said. “It's a fine balance, but I don't mind not being in the belly of it (recruitment). I really like to try and inspire footballers to find the levels of intensity. I can't turn a player into Lionel Messi, but I can demand they work hard.”