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In the space of a fortnight at the end of April and beginning of May, Sunderland released their latest accounts, for season 2021-22, then defeated Luton Town 2-1 at the Stadium of Light in the first leg of a Championship play-off semi-final.

Suddenly, Sunderland were a draw away from Wembley, and a win there from a return to the Premier League, having just disclosed their wages to turnover ratio was an impressive 62 per cent.


Ultimately, Luton benefitted from the injury crisis afflicting Sunderland to win the second leg 2-0, and all know and salute their remarkable rise.

But had Sunderland been the ones to go up via the play-offs last season, the focus beyond Wearside would have been on more than the youthful vibrancy of Tony Mowbray’s attractive side; there would have been many looking at how the club had come so far, so relatively quickly and cheaply.

On Saturday, five days after the removal of Mowbray, Sunderland skipped back into the Championship play-off places with a 2-1 home victory against West Bromwich Albion that would have been more straightforward had Jobe Bellingham’s onside first-half goal not been disallowed.

Sunderland’s approach — what they think and why they think it — is being revisited.

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Bellingham was a significant summer signing (Michael Driver/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The signing of Bellingham from fellow second-tier side Birmingham City when he was 17, along with several others in the summer and last January, such as Pierre Ekwah from West Ham United — a week after he turned 21 — means Sunderland’s player wages will have risen, and perhaps in percentage terms as well.

But then turnover will have gone up — multiple television games due to Mowbray’s good-to-watch tactics and the spectacle of the near 50,000-capacity stadium are factors – so the club may continue to look economically prudent while developing young players and staging promotion bids.

A question occupying Wearside is: how long this can go on? How long can a club of Sunderland’s scale, of such history, prominence and meaning locally, be primarily developmental with promotion ambition as an addition?

It could be said it works for Brighton & Hove Albion. But that would ignore the volume of Tony Bloom’s investment there and would fail to recognise the cultural difference in the areas — Brighton & Hove Albion are not the biggest thing in either Brighton or Hove. Sunderland are essential to Sunderland, to its perception and self-perception.


The club sold 33,000 season tickets this summer, while in the second tier of English football. Those supporters then saw striker Ross Stewart sold for £10million ($12.5m). His replacements — Nazariy Rusyn (25; £2.5m), Mason Burstow (20; loan from Chelsea), Eliezer Mayenda, (18; fee unknown) and Luis Hemir Semedo (20; for £500,000) — have yet to score once between them.

Mowbray knew this. He knew the club’s hierarchy seemed happier to sign four young players for minimal outlay than, say, one proven striker — somebody older and so more costly.

It is hazardous to analyse when transfer fees are kept private but, in ballpark figures, over the last four transfer windows, Sunderland’s net spend may be somewhere between £7million and £10m. For parochial context, with an FA Cup derby against bitter local rivals Newcastle United looming next month, that is less than the price of one of Chris Wood’s legs.

In a Championship context, Nathan Broadhead has seven goals this season for second-placed Ipswich Town. Broadhead had been at Sunderland on loan from Everton in 2021-22, when they were in third-tier League One, and was destined to sign permanently; then Ipswich, also in League One at the time, offered higher wages and agreed to meet the reported £1.5million transfer fee.

Ipswich are currently 18 points ahead of Sunderland in second place, but their last wages-to-turnover ratio was 114 per cent. That would seem unsustainable but it may take them to the Premier League, where their turnover would soar. It is comparable to Nottingham Forest, whose wages-to-turnover ratio was 200 per cent at one stage. But it got them promotion from the Championship in 2022 and they now look capable of staying in the Premier League for years.

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Could Will Still be tempted to leave Reims for Sunderland? (Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)
The gamble is obvious. So there are big questions for any fanbase, including Sunderland’s over (if not outright) ambition, then the pace of ambition.


Majority owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has said the club have a five-year plan to reach the Premier League. This is year three. So why sack Mowbray now? It’s another question.

The probable answer to the larger one — how long this twin-track approach towards prudence and ambition can go on? — is: as long as Sunderland are winning matches. Fans can tolerate victories.

In Mowbray’s absence, and with the much-talked ‘succession plan’ yet to yield a successor, first-team coach Mike Dodds has stepped up. Dodds’ starting XI and substitutions delivered a recognisably Mowbray performance of fluency, attack and the odd defensive concern against West Brom. But the three points were deserved and it bought the club some time — at least until Leeds United visit on Tuesday. Leeds are third, and a better team than fifth-placed Albion.

Dodds, a 37-year-old from the Midlands, was relieved and buoyant and when asked about the club’s overall philosophy, he brought it back to Luton.

On Friday, he had talked about the rest of Sunderland’s season, with promotion as an ambition. Now he was asked if that is realistic.

“Was it realistic that last year we came in the top six?” Dodds said. “We did it, so it’s achievable. Is it realistic that Luton are in the Premier League with their budget? It can be done.

“But one thing I’ll say about this football club is that they’re not going to deviate from what they believe is right. They are clear and focused on how they want to run the football club. That’s pretty evident.

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