Both are newly-promoted clubs but each are in much different January transfer positions
Isaac Johnson Leeds United reporter
13:28, 04 Nov 2025
Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has been speaking about the Black Cats' start to the season.
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Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus(Image: Sky Sports)
You have to give Sunderland credit. A total of 18 points from their first 10 Premier League games means they are probably already halfway to safety.
Any team has the ability to hit the ground running but it is about those who can sustain it and Sunderland’s present top-four status tells their story. The 2-1 win away at Chelsea showed their poise and guile - and the ability to play the away game right.
In fact, they have earned seven points on the road, four more than Leeds United. The Whites would swap their current position in a heartbeat.
Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus said his club will be aiming for a top 10 finish given their start to the season. Why not dream? Why not be ambitious? At the same time there are underlying facts.
Seven of their players will miss at least three games over the Christmas period, some possibly four or five. One of these will certainly be the home game against Leeds, with Sunderland also having to cope without players for the trip to Manchester City and probably Tottenham Hotspur too.
Leeds have played three of the five Champions League sides so far, plus Bournemouth who are flying high this season. Sunderland have only played one Champions League outfit - admittedly the win over Chelsea - and have not played any of the current top six.
It is imperative for them to rack up the points now to give themselves a cushion for any potential fallback. United, make no mistake, have the same task.
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With Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool in quick succession, the defeats at Burnley and Brighton place pressure on the upcoming clashes against Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa either side of the international break.
By the end of this five-game run, it will become clearer whether Leeds must dip into the January market. Some fans already think that should be a foregone conclusion. Sunderland will be doing so themselves.
“Hopefully we will be going into the January window with a top ten finish in mind and we will prepare and execute the transfer window to give us the best chance,” said Black Cats chief Louis-Dreyfus.
"For us, we didn’t really set ourselves a budget in terms of the money we want to spend [in the summer]. We had an ambition to try and bring in the players we wanted.
"Fortunately a lot of the deals we wanted to do, we could and we were able to conclude them. As a result of that, the spending in the end was big. But most importantly, we got the players that we wanted."
That’s true, they did. But they also had to. While Leeds helm firm on bid prices, Sunderland needed the quality in to give themselves a fighting chance and so paid above the going rate for signings.
Noah Sadiki of Sunderland
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Noah Sadiki was on Leeds United's radar(Image: Getty Images)
The reason for the respective stances of both clubs comes down to PSR. Sunderland’s squad base cost was significantly lower than Leeds’. Both have the same £61m three-year loss limit but senior figures at the Stadium Of Light were working with far more space.
As Leeds managing director Robbie Evans explained: “Sunderland has, in my view, the perfect storm, in a good way, of creating PSR room between the combination of - as far as I’m aware - little or no operating loss over the last two seasons. Very low wage bill, gets promoted, sells their top talents for tens of millions.
“They are effectively carrying no prior losses and a player sale profit into the Premier League, where they have a 48,000-person stadium waiting for them to sell out every game. Those conditions have never existed in the history of PSR.
“My guess is Sunderland has the highest cap room in the history of PSR, and they have been very aggressive in that, which they deserve a lot of credit for. That happened as a part of their long-term plan, building up from the youth movement. Leeds comes from almost the exact opposite position.”
Having spent more than £100m over the summer, Leeds United have maxed out their PSR limits and so will need to create headspace before the end of June if they wish to bring in another player. Sunderland might not have to.
Not that he needed to, but this PSR situation is what Louis-Dreyfus missed out in his explanation regarding the summer budget, and why Sunderland can be expansive in the January market. It’s why Leeds’ window will likely be more limited.
The two winter windows could look very different. Needless to say, we are still only 10 games in, a quarter of the season. There is such a long way to go. Sunderland are seven points ahead of Leeds - hardly an unassailable gap.
Comparison between the two will be natural and are largely justifiable. Just not in every aspect, including when it comes to January.
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