Sunderland ace Stephane Sessegnon is excited by the squad manager Paolo di Canio is assembling.

Di Canio's recent shopping spree and a gruelling pre-season have left Sessegnon in optimistic mood ahead of the new campaign.

He said: "It's a very important time, you need to have a pre-season. You need to do the hard work to start the season well.

"I think that affected me during the first few months of last season, but this year is different because we have had a good pre-season with a lot of good players coming.

"That's made everyone work hard in training and we have got a strong mentality too among the players. It looks good already for the start of the season."