Young Guns (Go For It)
They say that dreams don’t come true in football, but Sunderland fans would probably argue otherwise after an exhilarating first season back in the Premier League.
Just a year after they won the Championship play-off final, not only did they finish in a mightily impressive seventh place, equalling their best ever result in England’s top flight, but they also qualified for next season’s Europa League.
Before the season started, everyone expected the Black Cats to go straight back down, but Régis Le Bris’ side defied the odds to reach Europe for the first time since 1973.
The French coach’s reaction was understandable, “I am proud, proud of the lads and the atmosphere in the stadium. We created something special and had to win. In my career this is top, top! Better even than Wembley, which was special. The journey is special. We feel the development.”
League Position
After the ignominious relegation in 2016/17, Sunderland spent eight seasons outside the Premier League, four of which were in League One.
Showcased by the brilliant “Sunderland ‘Til I Die” documentary, the club became a byword for under-performance, as the weaknesses of its dysfunctional leadership were laid bare.
The return to the Premier League did not come easy, as both promotions were only achieved via the play-offs, including a nail biting victory over Sheffield United to get out of the Championship, when the winning goal was scored in the fifth minute of injury time.
Ownership
There has been a distinct improvement in Sunderland’s fortunes since Kyril Louis-Dreyfus (KLD) became controlling shareholder in February 2021, when he bought 41% of the club, though the previous ownership group retained 59%: Stewart Donald 34%, Juan Sartori 20% and Charlie Methven 5%. Even though it was only a minority stake, this gave Louis-Dreyfus full control of the board.
This transaction made Louis-Dreyfus the youngest person to ever own an English football club and even now he is just 28 years old. That said, his late father Robert once owned French team Olympique de Marseille, so football is in his veins.
In June 2022 Louis-Dreyfus increased his stake to 51% after buying out Charlie Methven’s 5% and another 5% from Donald, who also sold 10% to Sartori, increasing the Uruguayan’s shareholding to 30%.
In May 2023 Louis-Dreyfus and Sartori acquired the remaining shares of Stewart Donald, so the current shareholding is 64% for KLD, 34% for Sartori and 2% others.
There have been recent reports that Sunderland have retained US investment bank Moelis ahead of a potential sale, though the current ownership group released a statement saying that it remains fully committed.
The owners added that they are “excited by a season of immense progress and the scale of the opportunities ahead, and the club is aggressively planning for its second campaign in the Premier League”.
Transfers 2025/26
It’s fair to say that Sunderland gave themselves a fighting chance of survival, as they splashed out a chunky £185m on new players, which was the ninth highest in in the top flight this season, according toTransfermarkt.
The lengthy list of summer signings included Habib Diarra from Strasbourg, Simon Adingra from Brighton, Brian Brobbey from Ajax, Chemsdine Talbi from Club Brugge, Noah Sadiki from Union Saint-Gilloise, Granit Xhaka from Bayer Leverkusen, Nordi Mukiele from Paris Saint-Germain, Omar Alderete from Getafe, Robin Roefs from NEC Nijmegen and Bertrand Traoré from Ajax.
In addition, Enzo Le Fée’s loan deal from Roma was made permanent, while two players arrived on free transfers, namely Reinildo Mandava from Atlético Madrid and Arthur Masuaka from Besiktas.
The squad was further strengthened in the January window with the purchases of Nilson Angulo from Anderlecht, Jocelin Ta Bi from Maccabi Netanya and Melker Ellborg from Malmö.
Indeed, Sunderland’s £140m net spend was seventh highest in the Premier League, only behind five of the Big Six and Nottingham Forest.
In fairness, all clubs promoted from the Championship are playing catch-up, especially those that have been outside the top flight for a few years, so they have to spend big or they will almost certainly face relegation. As an example, in the previous two seasons all six promoted clubs went back down at the first time of asking.
Le Bris was acutely aware of the challenge, “To be competitive in this league we have to break something, otherwise the same trend continues and we know the outcome.”
In this way, Sunderland broke the record for transfer spend in the first season after promotion to the Premier League, as their £185m put them ahead of Nottingham Forest £170m (2022/23), Aston Villa £156m (2019/20) and Bournemouth £130m (2022/23). It’s no coincidence that all these clubs have survived and flourished.
Strategy
Under KLD Sunderland’s strategy has been to invest in young players with potential for further development, which should help with player trading profits in the future, though they have also been mindful of the need to perform on the pitch.
As a result of this focus on youth, Sunderland had one of the youngest squads in the Championship in 2024/25, which was reinforced by the majority of this season’s signings.
This was one of the reasons why they appointed Le Bris, as his playing identity “matched and aligned to our pursuit of developing young talent while building an exciting product on the field for our fans”.
However, they have not slavishly followed this formula, as seen by the signing of Xhaka, whose experience and leadership has proved invaluable.
2024/25 Season
In addition, the ownership has focused on the club’s financial sustainability, learning from past mistakes. Even though Sunderland still lose money, the losses are much more manageable than in the past.
Let’s take a look at the latest available accounts from 2024/25, which cover the ”successful” season when they secured promotion, in order to understand how the strategy has worked, as well as the hurdles that Sunderland have had to overcome in the Premier League.
Profit/(Loss) 2024/25
In 2024/25 Sunderland said that “performance off the pitch followed that on it”, as their pre-tax loss more than halved from £8.6m to £4.0m, after revenue rose £2.1m (6%) from £38.2m to £40.3m.
However, there was a steep increase in operating expenses, which shot up £32.2m (59%) from £55.0m to £87.2m, partly due to a hefty promotion bonus, while net interest payable more than quadrupled from £0.6m to £2.9m.
This led to the operating loss almost tripling from £16.9m to £46.9m, but this was offset by profit on player sales rising from £8.8m to £45.9m.
The club described the revenue growth as “strong across most areas”, even though it was quite small at just £2.1m (6%). There were decent increases in gate receipts, up £1.7m (14%) from £11.6m to £13.3m, and broadcasting, up £1.6m (15%) from £10.4m to £12.0m. On the other hand, commercial dropped £1.1m (7%) from £16.1m to £15.0m.
Staff costs were much higher: the wage bill shot up £22.4m (72%) from £31.4m to £53.8m, including the promotion bonus, while player amortisation nearly tripled, up from £4.0m to £10.4m.
Other expenses also rose £1.9m (11%) from £17.5m to £19.4m, while depreciation increased £1.3m (63%) from £2.2m to £3.5m.
Although losing money is rarely good news, Sunderland’s £4.0m loss was actually one of the better results in the Championship, as most clubs in this division lose huge sums.
In fact, no fewer than 17 clubs lost more than twice as much as Sunderland, while seven of them posted losses above £20m.