Mel Reay lifts lid on Sunderland's summer business, season ahead and the transfer two years in the making

It may not been a quieter summer for Sunderland head coach Mel Reay but it has been a very different one.

Last time around the switch to a hybrid playing model and the huge step towards professionalism that represented sparked a major turnover of personnel. There was some understandable anxiety on the outside as to what lay ahead but internally, Reay and her staff were quietly confident that they had added significant quality to the group and that the added benefits of professionalisation would show on the pitch. It proved to be a better campaign than most would have dared dream of, the Black Cats in the title race right up until the penultimate weekend of the season. This time around, the work has been just as extensive but the turnover much smaller. Four players have arrived and with a 20-player squad, Reay says the club’s summer business is complete. Reay has added youth and experience, as well as landing a striker deal two years in the making. The mood behind the scenes a few weeks out from the campaign is one of quiet confidence as a result.

"Pre season has been really good, we're delighted with the four incomings," Reay said.

"Players of real quality and we've seen during the course of pre-season that the bar has been raised. The competition is fierce and so we're excited. They've been in for eight weeks now and they're chomping at the bit to get started.

"The piece for us now going forward is to layer up our game. We've got a clear identity I think now, a clear way of playing. The players we've brought in just give us more competition and more flexibility to adapt. Demi [Lambourne] has won this division twice now as a player, a real leader with invaluable experience. That's going to be pivotal for us, brilliant person and goalkeeper.

"Eleanor Dale is now finally a Sunderland player - we've been chasing her for 18 months! I tried to sign a couple of times in the January window and I'm delighted she's here, an out-and-out goalscorer, off both feet and in the air. I'm excited for people to see her play, I think she's a real valuable asset and hopefully a bit of a goal machine. She's from the north east and had a really successful four years at Nebraska. She came into train with us a couple of years back on her Christmas break and that's how long we've been tracking her. When she finally graduated we tried really hard to get her in, you kept asking me all through January about who I was trying to get in and that was her... she ended up going to Everton on a short-term deal but we kept in touch and managed to have those good conversations over the summer. We expressed the vision, the way we wanted to play. She's already scored four goals for us in pre-season and she's raring to go.

"Jessie Stapleton is an established international, can play central defence or midfield, tough and takes no nonsense. Keira Flannery, West Ham see her as a really pivotal player over the next few years and with our track record of developing players, we're delighted. She's very comfortable on the ball, very comfortable as a pivot or a bit more box-to-box - again it's that versatility.

"We've done a lot of work on our style of play over the summer, credit to the backroom staff. We've produced lots of reports for the players, what they need to be better at in and out of possession."

The only summer setbacks were the departures of Mollie Rouse and Claudia Moan, the former making the switch to the US and Moan joining Newcastle United following their promotion to the second tier.

"It's part and parcel of football," Reay said.

"Both were offered contracts and rejected them, simple as that really. There were some good conversations with Mollie, who expressed her ambition to go and play in America which was fine. We wish them well, the players we've brought in I think add value and make us stronger."

Sunderland are confident they'll be stronger this season but where that leaves them in the division itself is harder to judge. The gulf in finances across the division has been laid bare by some of the eye-catching signs made even as Reading's financial difficulties saw them drop out of the league entirely. The result is a smaller division stacked with teams who have realistic promotion ambitions. If Sunderland are to replicate what they did last season, they will have to go to another level again.

"It's a smaller league, 20 games... it's not a huge amount and every game is going to be crucial," Reay said.

"You don't really know who the favourites are until you get a couple of games in and I think once you do that, you're a third of the way through! There's certainly a lot of money floating around in the division, some big players signed for some teams. When you look at our start and where those teams finished, we've got some of those big teams early on. It's just all eyes on Birmingham for us at the minute for us, really. We're excited, though, looking forward to it. We trust our own processes, we've evolving and I think people can see that we've got stronger every year. We didn't need a huge overhaul, we had a competitive squad and went close.

"With the four signings we hope we can kick on, but likewise we know other teams feel the same," Reay added.

“It's just about concentrating on ourselves, you can't control other club's finances. We're happy with our squad, Emily Cassap has been promoted into a first-team player as well so we have our squad of 20 and I think they're all chomping at the bit to get that shirt for Birmingham."

One significant change this season is the prospect of four showpiece fixtures at the Stadium of Light. The club reverted to playing at Eppleton permanently last season, a ground where the tighter crowd can generate an atmosphere that better serves the team on home turf. This year, the increased stature of the games, including the derbies against Newcastle and Durham, raise hope of significantly improved attendances to grow the game.

"I think it's really exciting, the players are really excited about the prospect," Reay said.

“You see that it's becoming the norm, not far off every away game is going to be at a Premier League standard ground. We like playing at Eppleton but we listened to the feedback and people feel it's not accessible, they want to come and watch but they feel they can't. Hopefully we can pull in some good crowds for those four games, you want to play at these stadiums but you want the crowd in there. Hopefully we can get the crowds in and win some games."

With a fortnight to go, Sunderland feel they are well placed for another successful campaign.