SUNDERLAND AFC may be languishing in the Premier League relegation zone – but the club is in the top six for summer spending.
Sunday's home defeat to Manchester City sent the Black Cats into the international break third from bottom in the table, having taken just three points from their first three games.
But if the club's summer spending is reflected in its league posi
tion at the end of the season, fans should start dusting off their passports in readiness for Europe next year.
The summer has seen the arrival of El-Hadji Diouf, Anton Ferdinand, Teemu Tainio, Nick Colgan, David Healy, Pascal Chimbonda, Steed Malbranque, David Meyler, George McCartney and Djibril Cisse.
The club has kept exact details of the deals secret, but sources estimate Ferdinand to have been the most expensive capture of the summer, with a price of about £8million.
And although Cisse is only on loan, the club is believed to have paid a fee of up to £2million to bring the Frenchman to the Stadium of Light.
Financial analysts Deloitte reckon Sunderland is one of six clubs to have spent more than £30million during the transfer window, alongside Aston Villa, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Spurs.
The firm says total spending by Premier League sides was about £500million, £30million more than the previous record and far more than in other European leagues. Spending in the Premiership was about double that in the Italian Serie A and Spain's Primera Liga.
And although the headlines were again caught by some high-profile transfers from abroad, about 40 per cent of the money spent was on players moving between Premiership clubs, a higher proportion than previously.
Paul Rawnsley, director of the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said the Premier League's TV deal meant English clubs were less susceptible than those on the continent to any economic downturn.
"With the majority of their revenue streams already contractually secured, English football clubs are proving resilient to the current challenging economic environment.
"While football is not recession-proof, it is recession-resistant."
Senior sports analyst Alex Byars added: "The levels of spending again demonstrates the strength of the top level of English football, and some of the financial benefits that are passed on to overseas clubs and Football League clubs through the player transfer system.
"Nonetheless, over the next couple of years there will be a continuing challenge to ensure that the clubs' overall level of spending – on both transfer fees and player wages – is maintained at sustainable levels."
