Sunderland have completed the signing of French youngster El-Hadji Ba, with Paolo Di Canio also closing in on a move for Argentine defender Gino Peruzzi.
Ba inked a three-year deal with Sunderland after seeing his contract with Le Havre expire at the end of last season.
The midfielder becomes Sunderland's seventh summer signing, and Peruzzi is expected to be the eighth with the 21-year-old's current club Velez Sarsfield confirming a deal has been agreed.
"Velez Sarsfield and Sunderland Association Football Club have reached an agreement to transfer the player Gino Peruzzi," Velez said in a statement on their official website.
The deal to bring in Peruzzi had seemingly broken down with Velez vice-president Julio Baldomar claiming earlier this week that the player had failed to agree on personal terms.
However, a fresh round of talks seems to have done the trick and the Argentine is set to join Di Canio's revolution at the Stadium of Light.
Meanwhile, new summer signing Jozy Altidore expressed his happiness at signing for the Black Cats.
The American international completed his switch to Sunderland from AZ Alkmaar a couple of days ago and cannot wait to get started.
"I'm excited, anybody that knows anything about football knows that the Barclays Premier League, when you look at everything as a full package, is the biggest league in the world," Altidore told the club's official website.
"I'm thrilled to be here and I'm looking forward to getting adjusted as quickly as possible.
"It's a fantastic club, everyone here is so welcoming, I'm really excited about this season - it has everything here, all the combinations to be a big club so I'm really excited to be a part of it.
Altidore is also looking forward to playing in front of the home crowd and hopes to impress each and every single one of them with his performances.
"It's great (the prospect of playing in front of over 40,000 fans), it's part of taking that next step as a player, to be able to play in front of a stadium like that is going to be really exciting -- I hope they like what I do on the pitch," Altidore added.
"Everybody I'm sure is excited to get the season off to a good start and I'm no different, I can't wait to meet the guys, meet the coaching staff and get acclimated as soon as possible.
"I'm just going to give everything I can to the team, that's the biggest thing to get the respect of your teammates and when you do that I think everything will fall into place.
"I'll just give my all for the club, I really appreciate the club making the investment in me as a player and I want to give that back."
