Leeds United splashed £100m this summer but were outshone by their big-spending Premier League relegation rivals.
A lot of Leeds United fans have viewed Sunderland with a hint of envy this summer as their Premier League rivals splashed the cash during an impressive and ambitious window.
As feels almost necessary in modern football, all three newly-promoted teams spent more than £100million this summer but while Leeds were left wanting, their play-off winning rivals just about nailed it. The best part of £170m splashed, 14 first-team players through the door and a squad that now looks ready to give Premier League survival a serious shot.
Freshly disappointed from a deadline-day which brought only last-minute heartache as Fulham pulled the plug on Harry Wilson, Leeds fans have been left asking how their relegation rivals did it, and whether anything can be learned by those in charge at Elland Road. How, for a start, could they afford it?
The sales of Tommy Watson and Jobe Bellingham - to Brighton and Borussia Dortmund respectively - helped, with Sunderland receiving a combined £38m for the pair. And a much cheaper approach to Championship promotion than Leeds also had them on the front foot.
“As an academy player, Watson creates pure profit from a PSR perspective and Bellingham banked Sunderland a profit well in excess of £20m on the fee they paid Birmingham City,” Phil Smith, who covers Sunderland for the Sunderland Echo, told the YEP. “It's not just about those two sales though.
“If you look at Sunderland's losses as a Championship club, they were relatively small as they weren't spending significant money on fees. They'd also sold Ross Stewart [£12m to Southampton] and Jack Clarke [£15m to Ipswich Town] across the previous two summers for huge profits, further building that headroom. It was an approach that drew criticism at times, but refusing to spend big on established Championship players and wages meant that they came into the top tier far, far leaner than most do.
“That meant that their PSR headroom was absolutely massive. It also helps that even before this summer's arrivals, the squad was stacked with young players who top-tier clubs would love to sign. It won't be hard for Sunderland to raise funds moving forward if they need to.”
Sunderland transfer strategy explained after Leeds United pipped to targets
It’s one thing having that PSR headroom, however, and another being able to utilise it. Elland Road chiefs were ambitious when identifying targets but often found themselves up against rivals who simply had more to offer, a frustration that came to the fore when Igor Paixão chose Marseille and Champions League football over Leeds and a relegation scrap.
Leeds United missed out on Igor Paixão.placeholder image
Leeds United missed out on Igor Paixão. | AFP via Getty Images
A lot of Sunderland’s targets were equally ambitious, though - indeed a lot of Sunderland targets were also Leeds targets. Habib Diarra, Noah Sadiki, Granit Xhaka, Simon Adingra and others will surely have had other suitors. So how did those in charge at the Stadium of Light ensure they came out on top?
“I think Sunderland have a really strong story they've sold to players,” Smith explained. “They want to be part of the club on its way back up and there's a really strong narrative around the opportunities they give young players. The signing of Xhaka was clearly key; getting him to commit had a bit of a domino effect in showing other players Sunderland are serious about giving it a go this season.
“And most people you speak to say the arrival of Florent Ghisolfi as director of football to support Kristjaan Speakman was a really important moment. He has a really strong contacts book and has clearly used his influence to open up new opportunities for the club.”
Six points from three games has seen Sunderland’s off-pitch success reflected on it during the season’s early weeks. Almost a mirror-image to the transfer window, they have gone one better than rivals Leeds, who themselves have impressed with four points while playing Everton, Arsenal and Newcastle United.
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But the gap between Championship and Premier League is larger than ever, so large that even £170m worth of new signings hasn’t pulled Sunderland away from the bottom three when it comes to Opta’s predicted table or most bookmakers’ odds. And so like Leeds, a difficult campaign is still the expectation.
“It's hard to argue it could have gone much better, the only caveats being that you don't know for sure how a lot of these players will adapt to the Premier League and AFCON is going to be a challenging period with a lot of key players heading to that competition,” Smith added. “Sunderland's survival prospects have been completely transformed from where they were in the days after the play-off final, but there is no complacency whatsoever. I think every fan knows it's going to be a season with a lot of tough moments and there are no guarantees.”
Now that’s something Leeds fans can agree with.
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