Steve Bruce is hoping to make Lorik Cana his third signing for Sunderland after admitting the Marseille captain is "right up his street". The Albania international, who turns 26 on Monday, is expected to fly to the Netherlands, where Sunderland are competing in the Amsterdam tournament, for talks ahead of tonight's game with Benfica.

"He is captain of Marseille and captain of his country - he's right up our street," Bruce, who missed out on a deal to sign Portsmouth forward Peter Crouch earlier this week, told the Sunderland Echo.

"I hate talking about other club's players until things are all signed and delivered - you just have to look at what happened with the Peter Crouch deal. So we'll just sit down with the lad and see how things progress."

There is progress being made on transfers. I know this club and what we are trying to do with it will be an attraction.
Sunderland manager Steve Bruce

Should he sign this weekend - Sunderland have made arrangements for a medical in Amsterdam - Cana would follow Paraguay skipper Paulo Da Silva and Fraizer Campbell in signing for the Wearsiders this summer. It is thought the Kosovo-born player would cost in the region of £6m.

Bruce is also in the market for a new forward, with Bordeaux's Marouane Chamakh and Tottenham Hotspur's England international Darren Bent high on the list of six players he targeted when he took over. "I had six people in mind. I have lost one of them, so I have had to look elsewhere in that sense, but generally I haven't wavered too much on the people I was after," explained the Sunderland manager. 

"There is progress being made on transfers - the work going on behind the scenes is incredible. But it is a long, drawn-out process and the situation we find ourselves in is normal.

"Yes, it would be lovely to have all my signings concluded by now, but that hasn't happened so far and it is a case of keeping a cool head because I know this club and what we are trying to do with it will be an attraction."