Bruce signed a cohort of players on season-long deals from their parent clubs a year ago. Most notably, Danny Welbeck, Nedum Onuoha and John Mensah proved to be successes during their stay at the Stadium of Light. Bruce has already signed nine players this summer and is tracking Wigan's Charles N'Zogbia, but Latics owner Dave Whelan's £11million price tag is jeopardising the possibility of any deal. Therefore, the Black Cats chief is looking to see if he can snare another gem through the loan system which bolstered his squad so effectively last term. "We would go down the route again if needs be," said Bruce. "I'm happy with the size and balance of the squad at the moment, though. "People tend to forget we had four or five loan players last year who played a big part for us. "Look at Onuoha; he was a big, big player for us. Mensah was a good defender, but I couldn't go down that route because he was unavailable to us too often. "And of course Danny Welbeck did so well we've got no chance of getting him back - which is frustrating."
