Sunderland chairman Stewart Donald has said he will give Phil Parkinson the chance to spend money in January in order to achieve promotion to the Sky Bet Championship.
The Black Cats, who are currently 7th in the Sky Bet League One table, fell short last season after losing to Portsmouth in the play-off semi finals.
This season, Donald wants the club to go one better and get back into the Championship, and to do that, he has assured fans that money will be spent on new players in January.
Donald told the Sunderland Echo: “The biggest single priority is getting out of the league. If we need to spend, we’ll spend.
“Having spoken to the manager and got his initial assessment of the squad, there’s no doubt he’s going to want to strengthen the squad. He sees some positives but also some things that we need to address.
“I was always realistic, getting a new manager always costs quite a bit of money because generally then want to have their own team around them and they’ll have their eye on a few players etc. We’ll do what’s needed.”
Last year, Sunderland splashed the cash to sign Wigan Athletic hotshot Will Grigg for a fee of £4m. However, he has only scored five league goals in 33 appearances since his arrival at the Stadium of Light and Donald admitted that transfer dealings last year did not work in the club’s favour.
He said: “Last January I tried to do what was needed, it just didn’t work, but I’d still maintain that if you were put in my shoes, you’d do what I did.
”It didn’t work, it didn’t always work, but the reality of it is that we’ll have to try and have a better January than we did last year.
“At the moment, (Will) doesn’t look good value for money. But the boy has got a proven pedigree, he’s a good lad with desire. Phil has got to get him firing, and if he does he’ll be one of the best investments I’ve made.”
