George McCartney surprised as three head out

Feb 3 2010 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

“But the manager clearly feels we have enough strength in depth to cope until the injured lads come back. It will be nice to have a fully-fit squad again.

“I’m sure the manager attempted to sign other players and it never happened. It’s a short period of time and we did manage to get one or two new faces in. Maybe he wanted others he didn’t get.”

There have been renewed calls for the transfer system to be changed after a typically fraught month of wheeling and dealing, with Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn joining Bruce in arguing the window should be scrapped, as it is an unfair restriction on trade and creates artificial pressure on clubs.

McCartney can see where they are coming from after weeks of intense speculation surrounding the club and striker Kenwyne Jones, who was heavily linked with a move at the start of the year – but he denied it has distracted the players on the pitch.

He explained: “It was strange having a match to prepare for on deadline day, you turn on the TV and there’s Sky Sports non-stop, throughout the day, reporting this that and the other.

“We weren’t banned from watching it.

“The only time I really watched it was when we met for pre-match at 5pm. No, I don’t think it got in the way of things.

“There might be news of players coming and going but our main focus as a group was the Stoke game.”

With two new defenders on board there is greater competition for places in Sunderland’s backline, although McCartney feels Alan Hutton, plus striker Benjani, may be short of match fitness.

He said: “Matt (Kilgallon) played against Everton and Stoke and had two solid displays. Alan Hutton is a good attacking full-back. He didn’t play much at Spurs and will be looking to show what he is made of here. I know Benjani had similar problems. He’ll need games and will look to prove his worth during his time here.”