Sunderland scouting chief Ricky Sbragia is delighted with his new role.

The Scot was replaced as manager by Steve Bruce and kept on to head player recruiting.

Sbragia told SAFC-TV: "Steve was kind enough to ask me back on the recruitment side of players. It's one of the most important jobs within the club at any level - you're only as good as what you bring in.

"I go out and watch plenty of games; I watch certain players and I'm making sure we can cover as much as we can in Europe as well.

"I make sure we have a database of players so when January comes around and we're looking at people we have a fair idea if we think they're good enough.

"Now we're going into the South American market as well; obviously Steve's had great success in that area and we spend a lot of time on that.

"In a way I miss coaching, but I'm getting old and I need to go in a new direction. I'll leave it to the younger people like Eric Black and I'll give it my all to make sure we can bring quality players in and improve the squad."