SAFC TransferWipe: 'Target' commits future to current club; Charlie Adam boost & Contento latest

Sunday - a day of rest? Hope not!

The 2017 January transfer window has but hours left open, closing as it does at 11pm on Tuesday. It's been a deathly quiet mid-season chance to refresh the squad at the Stadium of Light, with only Patrick van Aanholt and Joleon Lescott providing any actual news of note.

That squad has some gaping holes that need filling before we all go to bed after the Tottenham game; but it's anyone's guess whether the three that absolutely must be acquired actually will be - a left-back, a central midfielder and an attacking player.

For one thing, there's a few fresh links that have emerged in the last 24-hours, as well as some updates. Here's the pick of the bunch.

Diego Contento - Bordeaux left back

It's all gone rather quiet across both sides of the channel on the progress of Sunderland's supposed bid to land Bordeaux full-back Diego Contento on loan.

Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images

The 26-year-old was, however, an unused substitute yesterday as FC Girondins de Bordeaux beat AS Nancy Lorraine by two-goals-to-nil. It's doubtful though that we can read much into his omission - the left-back hasn't started a Ligue 1 game since the 17th December - partly through form and partly due to a disciplinary issue.

Manolo Gabbiadini may be in action this afternoon. The Napoli striker is strongly rumoured to be on the verge of a move to Southampton, though reports on Friday suggested Sunderland were poised ready to hijack that move. The Naples-based outfit host Palermo today. Palermo were the Serie A club linked with Vito Mannone a few weeks ago.

More on this one later - Roker Report has an Italian transfer guru at the scene to provide an update on the Gabbiadini talk this afternoon.

Charlie Adam - Stoke City midfielder

According to a source which claims itself as 'close' to Fenerbahçe, the Turkish club have no interest in Stoke City midfielder Charlie Adam, which may be welcome news to David Moyes.

Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images

ESPN reported during the week that Sunderland and the Istanbul club would battle it out to sign the 31-year-old before the transfer window closes.

There haven't been any other clubs of note linked with the midfielder so presumably Dick Advocaat's lack of interest in Adam would make Sunderland's pursuit of him a clearer one.

However, the Stoke Sentinel reported on Friday that Mark Hughes is keen to hold on to the former-Liverpool man with the Potters hierarchy viewing him as a long-established lynch-pin of a reliable old guard at the club.

Some kid from Falkirk

So, David Moyes spent his free Saturday north of the border, taking in a Scottish second-tier match, and absolutely everyone has assumed he was there to watch some 17-year-old kid who sometimes plays at left-back for Falkirk.

The Sunderland boss was spotted in the stands, sporting what looks like a new shorter hair-do and a suitably startled expression.

Tony Gallacher was the assumed target. The teenager has only played in five first-team league matches this season - in fact ever in his career - but that hasn't stopped him supposedly being watched by scouts representing every club in the world, including Barcelona, Manchester United, Liverpool and Rangers.

Stoke City are thought to have had a bid rejected the other day for him and the fact that the left-back was an unused substitute yesterday might indicate some movement is afoot for him in the next few days.

We'd like to give Moyes the benefit of the doubt here and assume he had a different target in mind. Whilst we're all for building for the future, it really would be nice right now to build for Tuesday night and next Saturday David. Not sure a 17-year-old is the priority this weekend.

Another bloke from Turkey - Who never wanted to come anyway

According to widespread reports, which can be traced back to Turkey, Sunderland are interested in Besiktas midfielder Tolgay Arslan. The German-born player who is of Turkish descent has been with the Istanbul club since 2015 having risen through the ranks at Hamburger SV.

Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

Except according to the latest news in Turkey, Arslan has committed his future to Besiktas. The 26-year-old even thanked clubs who may have been interested in him, before declaring himself fully focused on his present team's assault on winning the Turkish Supa Lig.

In truth, ever since Dick Advocaat and Jeremain Lens ended up in Istanbul, Sunderland have been too easy an addition for Turkish media outlets as an after thought to any story they're making up on any given day.

Next ........

Andreas Samaris - Benfica midfielder... yawn

Andreas Samaris is still being linked with a move from Estádio da Luz to its English near namesake, the Stadium of Light.

Photo by Carlos Rodrigues/Getty Images

The Greek international signed for Benfica for ten-million-euros in 2014 and whilst his numbers stack up - 64 appearances for the Portuguese club in his two-and-a-half years there, he hasn't featured regularly this season starting just 9 times. A defensive midfielder, Samaris appears to be up for sale to the highest bidder. He was linked with a move to Russia earlier in the transfer window.

So far we've had the president of Benfica supposedly land in the UK for talks with David Moyes, a representative of Sunderland fly out to Portugal and the player's agent has been talking up the deal's prospects for a wee while now.

And therein lies the doubt here - the agent of Samaris is Cesar Boaventura who represented Mika Domingues when he signed for Sunderland in the summer. Yesterday, Boaventura appeared to distance himself from talk of any deal by saying the matter is now between the two clubs.

Just all seems a bit woolly this one - as Portuguese-based rumours have a tendency to be.