Sunderland have completed the signing of Swedish international Ola Toivonen on a season-long loan deal from French side Rennes, the Premier League club have confirmed.

The 29-year-old, who can play in an attacking midfield role or as a striker, joins after manager Dick Advocaat had admitted that he was not satisfied with the Black Cats' summer transfer dealings so far.

Speaking to the club's official website, Advocaat noted that Toivonen was a player he knows well after managing him in the Netherlands with PSV Eindhoven.

He went on to say that the six-foot-two Swede was "a national team player with a lot of experience" and would bring "something different" to his side through his goalscoring ability and power in the air.

Toivonen's career so far

Toivonen began his career with Swedish minnows Degerfors IF and Örgryte IS, but caught the eye during a two-year spell with Malmö FF in which he scored 17 league goals.

From there, he moved to Dutch giants PSV, where he spent a fruitful five years. He lifted both the Dutch Cup and Dutch Super Cup in 2012, as yet his only club honours as a player.

Since making the switch to Ligue Un with Rennes in January 2014 for a transfer fee of €2.5million, Toivonen has gone on to make almost a half century of league appearances for the French side, with 14 goals.

He is also closing in on double figures in terms of international goals, with nine strikes in 43 appearances since his senior debut in 2007.

Are Sunderland focusing on the wrong problems?

Though Sunderland's struggles in the early portion of this season have been well documented, the signing of Toivonen may raise some eyebrows with Advocaat's side's biggest problems coming at the other end of the pitch.

After a 6-3 thrashing of Exeter City in the Capital One Cup in midweek, Sunderland have found the net ten times in their first four games of the new campaign but have struggled in defence, a catalogue of errors leaving the Black Cats having leaked 11 goals this season already.

Advocaat slams recent transfers

Advocaat recently went on record to criticise his predecessors in the Sunderland hotseat, complaining that previous managers signed average players for exorbitant fees because they did not care about the future of the club.

With a net spend of little over £10million this summer, the Dutchman may still be planning on opening his wallet again before the transfer window closes next week.

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About the author
Sam France
Former Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Features Editor at VAVEL UK, part of the VAVEL team 2014-2018.