Bruce targeting Freiburg's Cisse as Sunderland boss seeks answer to striker crisisBy Sportsmail Reporter
Last updated at 11:50 PM on 29th August 2011
Steve Bruce is trying again for Freiburg striker Papiss Demba Cisse in a desperate bid to solve Sunderland's goalscoring crisis.
Sportsmail revealed Sunderland wanted the Senegal international earlier this month but they were put off by the German club's demands for £13million.
Sunderland have managed just one goal in their opening three games, a run which has put Bruce's future in doubt and he wants to remedy that by bringing in the forward his team badly needs.
Bayern Munich and Fulham have also shown strong interest in 26-year-old Cisse who has scored 32 goals in 51 games at Freiburg while Blackburn bid £6.5m earlier in the year.
Bruce also remains keen on Tottenham's Peter Crouch and has tried to revive a deal for Wolfsburg's Patrick Helmes. And, in a scatter-gun approach Bruce has also considered a loan for Manchester United's Federico Macheda and a surprise move for Celtic striker Georgios Samaras.
Bruce watched the 26-year-old Greece international earlier this year and considered a move in January. Samaras has Premier League experience having scored 12 goals in 63 appearances for Manchester City before heading north of the border.
The Sunderland manager has signed 10 new players for around £30m already this summer, including two strikers, Connor Wickham and Ji Dong-won.
However, Bruce said: 'We've brought in Ji and Wickham as players for the future. We've definitely got two players of potential there but we won't see the best of either of them for a year to 18 months.
'In the meantime we need a bit extra up front. If we're honest we've been a bit lacking in that department since Darren Bent left for Aston Villa last January so we'll do all we can to bring someone in by Wednesday night. We'll just have to try our best and see if it's possible.'
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