2009/10 to 2017/18

Sunderland spent eight of the nine seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18 in the Premier League and one in the Championship. Their best finish was 10th, in 2010/11. They didn’t win a major trophy. Over those nine summers they paid £148.4m in transfer fees and took in £99.5m, a net spend of £48.9m. In 115.football they get City’s £900m instead.

Sunderland spent eight straight seasons in the Premier League, and for most of them survival felt like the summit. Tenth in 2010/11 was the high point. After that came 13th, 17th, 14th, 16th and 17th, each one a scrap. In 2016/17 the escapes ran out: bottom, 24 points. A year later they finished bottom of the Championship too, two relegations in a row.

The club spent plenty. Darren Bent, Asamoah Gyan, Steven Fletcher, Jack Rodwell and Didier Ndong all cost £10m or more. But the best players went the other way: Jordan Henderson to Liverpool in 2011, Simon Mignolet to Liverpool in 2013 and Jordan Pickford to Everton for £25m in 2017.

The 115.football Sunderland save is about where the money goes. Big fees for forwards never lifted them clear of trouble. Keep Henderson, Mignolet and Pickford, spend on the whole squad, and the Stadium of Light hosts survival parties no longer.