David Moyes faced the media earlier today with his Sunderland side set to face Stoke City tomorrow at the Stadium of Light, but with the transfer window now open the main focus was on whether the Black Cats are going to be a selling club this month due to their financial situation.
Moyes stands firm with regards to bids for key men
With West Ham's reported bid of £6m for Jermain Defoe and Crystal Palace's £7m offer for Patrick van Aanholt both rejected in the recent past by Moyes, it is clear to see that the Scotsman is looking to keep hold of his top performers in order to stay in the top-flight.
Moyes was keen to stress that he wants "to keep all of [Sunderland's] good players" in the wake of the recent transfer bids, and added that he wishes to "add to our group, rather than lose players".
The Black Cats boss also admitted that there have been "a few bids for quite a lot of our players", although he remained tight-lipped on which players they were but assured the media that despite the club's financial situation "we want to keep our players and we want to add [to the squad] if we can do."
With CEO Martin Bain coming out recently to admit that the club will be strapped for cash for the foreseeable future whilst Ellis Short attempts to move Sunderland on to new owners, Moyes is understandably looking to manage fans' expectations during the transfer window.
Sunderland boss well aware of Stoke's multi-dimensional attack
Another player linked with a move away has been loanee Adnan Januzaj, who has been rumoured to be in discussions with Olympique Lyonnais over a permanent transfer which would mean the Belgian would have his loan spell on Wearside cut short.
Moyes however said that this news left him "shocked" and said that he "knew nothing about it" before stressing that he has "heard nothing from Adnan, so I can only take it as pure speculation."
Speaking about tomorrow's opponents Moyes said that "Peter Crouch coming back into their team has given them something", with Stoke perhaps lacking a focal point up front in the absence of the veteran striker.
Developing on his point about Crouch, Moyes stressed that "everyone knows what he is capable of" but also mentioned that players such as Xherdan Shaqiri, Ibrahim Afellay and Marko Arnautovic are "different types of players" and that his Sunderland side will need to remain switched on in order to obtain three points.