Jack Ross reveals the latest on triallist Gael Andonian after Ndong and Djilobodji blow

The 23-year-old Armenian had spent time training at the Academy of Light in a bid to earn a contract, and even featured for the under-23s in a Premier League 2 clash with West Brom.

Ross watched that game and was keen on bringing in a left-sided centre back such as Andonian, but has now confirmed that the former Marseille man will not be staying on Wearside.

However, the Sunderland boss isn't overly concerned about his departure and is realistic regarding the club's current financial situation.

MORE: These are the 13 key contract decisions facing Jack RossWith wantaway duo Didier Ndong and Papy Djilobodji failing to seal moves away, the Black Cats need to address their futures first before any in-comings can be secure.

“There’ll be nothing on that," said Ross when asked about Andonian.

“We had a decision to make in terms of how he fitted into the squad but equally now, we have some things to consider in terms of where we are with Papy and Didier, and how they weren’t resolved before most of those European windows closed.

“We need to address those first.

READ: Defender responds to Sunderland transfer links“But I’m not complaining about that, I did say at the time that as a squad, we’re in a healthy position in terms of what we’ve got in the time we had to put it together.”

While Ross is happy with his current squad, the Scot was keen to add another attacking player to his squad before the transfer window closed - with Celtic's Ryan Christie heavily-linked.

But the Black Cats' boss won't be ruing missed targets after a tough summer which saw him have to build an almost entirely new squad.

“I have to remind myself of that, genuinely," he added.

MORE: Ex-Sunderland striker opens up on the vital role Niall Quinn played in his development“Early in my tenure I sat in my office on a few occasions and thought, this is a heck of a job in terms of turning this round and how we piece a squad together.

“I was asking myself, ‘who is coming back?’ I honestly had no idea who was going to walk though the door.

“First day of pre-season I think we only had 10 or so. You forget that.

“If I take myself to being in the barn at the training ground on the first day and doing the testing, we had two groups of five or something like that.

“How quickly we’ve got to this stage is encouraging."