Reports in South America suggest Sunderland are closely tracking Chile international striker

Tony Mowbray mentioned earlier today, in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Ipswich Town game, that Sunderland were targeting two overseas attacking players.

Sunderland’s head coach explained that the players would be very talented attacking players, just on the cusp of their international teams and playing in a league where we can go and take their best players.

They’re likely to be names you’d have to follow world football to know, I would suggest to you. But I think they’ll probably be a little more experienced, they’re not going to be kids who’ve never played men’s football before.

They’ll be footballers who are very talented, just on the cusp of their international teams, playing in a league that we think we can go to and take their best players. We don’t pay the very top dollar in this division, but we feel we can find really talented players and give them that exposure, and then we can have a real footballer on our hands.

It’s not about getting household names because they already have that reputation and they can earn beyond what we pay. The idea is to get these players and turn them into household names over a year or two.

That had led to some people to wonder if a player who had been mentioned earlier in the summer could be back on the agenda, in the shape of Universidad Catolica (UC) forward Alexander Aravena, and that indeed appears to be the case according to reports in Chile.

Aravena has three caps for Chile and had been scouted by Sunderland earlier in the window but ADN Deportes are reporting that we are now closely tracking the player once again.

The report goes on to say that the Chilean club could receive an offer from Sunderland before the transfer window closes, with UC watching developments closely.

The 20-year-old has ten goals and four assists for UC this season, in just 21 games in all competitions and you can see all his touches in a recent game on the Tweet below: