Sunderland hope to sign Seb Larsson despite Aston Villa interest

Sunderland are hoping to fend off Aston Villa's late endeavours at hijacking their near-completed signing of Seb Larsson. The Swedish winger is a free agent after leaving Birmingham City at the end of his contract and Steve Bruce had been extremely confident of signing the 26-year-old until an 11th-hour intervention by Alex McLeish, Larsson's manager at Birmingham. While McLeish, who has just taken over at Villa, is also likely to try to gazump Liverpool's efforts to sign Charlie Adam from Blackpool, Sunderland are continuing to revamp their squad. Wigan's Charles N'Zogbia remains Bruce's prime target but the Sunderland manager is also currently pressing Ji Dong-won, the 20-year-old South Korea striker and his club, Chunnan Dragons to finalise a mooted £800,000 transfer. The deal initially seemed straightforward but has been complicated by late interest from PSV Eindhoven. Ji is said to be "torn" between the two clubs. Bruce also intends to coax David Ngog, the Liverpool striker, into accepting a £3m move to Sunderland and has been told he should learn in August whether Sir Alex Ferguson will agree to release Danny Welbeck for another season-long loan. Welbeck's Manchester United team-mates Darron Gibson and John O'Shea are currently mulling over prospective moves to Sunderland. Bruce, meanwhile, hopes to finalise the signing of Nedum Onuoha from Manchester City – but not at City's £8m asking price – and is also optimistic about the £5m acquisition of the Birmingham midfielder Craig Gardner.