MICHAEL BEALE has been involved in recruitment meetings at Sunderland this week – with the club having identified the “one or two” areas they will be looking to improve during the transfer window.

Beale’s opening couple of weeks on Wearside have been something of a whirlwind, with the Black Cats having played four matches in the space of ten days over Christmas and New Year.

Things will not be slowing down this week, with the build-up to the first Wear-Tyne derby in almost eight years set to intensify ahead of Saturday’s showdown at the Stadium of Light.

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Amid the match preparation, though, Beale has managed to find time to meet with the other members of Sunderland’s recruitment team.

And with sporting director, Kristjaan Speakman, leading the way, there is a determination to strengthen in a couple of key areas this month.

“We spoke about the January window in our initial meetings, and it has been ongoing,” said Beale. “Stuart Harvey, the head of recruitment, is someone I was familiar with before I came in, and the recruitment here is done by a number of us getting together in a room and discussing the options that we have.

“We have a clear idea on one or two of the areas we would like to strengthen this month, if we can. It’s never an easy month, but we are certainly going to try and do something to strengthen and boost the squad, and to hopefully excite the fans.

“Those discussions are going on in the background. This (derby) game has been a bit of a distraction, if I’m honest, but those discussions were happening even (Tuesday) morning and late on in the afternoon.”

While targets have been identified and, in some cases, initial discussions have taken place, Beale does not want to be too definitive about the possible timeline for January deals.

However, the head coach has admitted nothing is imminent, with his focus for the next couple of days set to be trained exclusively on the preparations for the FA Cup meeting with Newcastle.

“I think everyone is to-ing and fro-ing a little bit,” he said. “There have been a lot of discussions going on, but nothing concrete as yet, so I wouldn’t want to put a timeline on it and disappoint, or be accused of pulling the wool over people’s eyes if it comes in a bit quicker. At the moment, though, there is nothing imminent.”