Sunderland Prepare Samaras Raid

Georgios Samaras is believed to be a shock transfer target for Sunderland. Steve Bruce has vowed to bring in a striker before the transfer window closes with the Celtic forward high in his list of options. Despite big money moves for Asamoah Gyan and Connor Wickham over the last twelve months Sunderland have scored just once this season in the Premiership and were dumped out of the League Cup by Brighton and lost the Tyne-Wear derby at home to Newcastle. Bruce is under pressure after spending £30m during the current transfer window and believes that Samaras could provide the missing link for his strikers. After a goal-less draw at Swansea on Saturday the Sunderland boss admitted: “We’ve brought in Ji (Dong Won) and Wickham as players for the future. We’ve definitely got two players of potential there but we won’t see the best of either of them for a year to 18 months. “In the meantime we need a bit extra up front. If we’re honest we’ve been a bit lacking in that department since Darren Bent left for Aston Villa last January so we’ll do all we can to bring someone in by Wednesday night. We’ll just have to try our best and see if it’s possible.’ Samaras is believed to be high on Bruce’s wanted list with Celtic prepared to offload the former Manchester City man if they get a bid of £2m. Bruce is also watching Papiss Demba Cisseof Freiburg but has been quoted a price of £13m and got little encouragement from his interest in Spurs strikers Robbie Keane and Peter Crouch.