The past ten years have seen Sunderland shell out big money on players who ultimately failed to make the grade at the Stadium of Light.
According to figures gathered by football data website TransferMarkt, the Black Cats are averaging a loss of just under £7 million a season when it comes to their outgoing spend on transfers vs the money they have taken from player sales.
Recent seasons have been far more beneficial for the club with only minimal six figure net spends in the past two seasons and substantial profits from the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons.
However, the big spending between 2011 and 2016 is what has brought the overall figure so far into the red with the -£55 million net loss from the 105/16 season the largest figure by some distance.
With the club now having secured a return to the EFL Championship, how does that net spend figure for the past ten years compare to their new league rivals?
While many sides in the division have recorded net profits ranging from substantial to minimal it is more common to see clubs in the red and Sunderland’s -£70m figure is far from the largest loss.
Using the data from Transfermarkt, here are all 24 EFL Championship clubs ranked by their net spent over the past ten seasons:
