The inside story of how Sunderland stunned the Premier League and upset the odds to secure survival

In the days that followed Sunderland’s win at Wembley, when Wearside was basking in the haze of that Tommy Watson strike, club insiders were speaking with optimism, excitement and a very healthy dose of realism.

With one stroke of his right foot, Sunderland’s Rocket Man had transformed the club’s future. That they would be in a fundamentally strong position three, four, five years down the line was a conviction firmly held. Left unsaid was the recognition that a relegation could well be part of that story. Sunderland would invest, they would strengthen, but it might not be enough initially. They would regroup, be stronger, and be ready the next time around.

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus had other ideas.

The arrival that signalled Sunderland’s intent

On June 18th, AS Roma posted a statement to their club website confirming that director of football Florent Ghisolfi would depart to pursue a ‘new professional opportunity’. Later that evening, Italian transfer insider Gianluca Di Marzio reported that this opportunity was in fact Sunderland’s Premier League project. It had been a turbulent, often difficult year in the eternal city for Ghisolfi but he had worked at the top level of European football for half a decade. This was a statement of intent from Louis-Dreyfus and signalled a major shift internally; there were senior figures at the club caught almost entirely off guard by the news. This was the start of a new chapter for Sunderland, and the first key signal that the club had absolutely no intention of just making up the numbers. It is well known that at their first Premier League meeting, executives at other clubs were polite but somewhat dismissive of Sunderland’s hopes of beating the drop. This was the first moment they should have realised this team was going to be a problem for them.

Senior sources were quick to point out that Ghisolfi would be working in partnership with the club’s existing footballing department and that was true to an extent, but the weight of his CV immediately indicated where the balance would lie.

Ghisolfi opened doors for Sunderland that would have otherwise been beyond them and most certainly beyond that of a newly-promoted team. In his opening address to staff at the Academy of Light, Ghisolfi said there would be no expectations and also no limits for the season ahead. Work hard, respect the opposition but don’t fear them, ‘Be Sunderland’ every day. And then he got to work.

Ghisolfi had an opportunity and a major problem. Sunderland’s promotion without parachute payments was an immense sporting achievement, and meant they came up to the top tier without the kind of legacy contracts that had so hamstrung so many of the teams before them. Especially with the PSR-busting sales of Jobe Bellingham and Tommy Watson already secured, Sunderland and Ghisolfi essentially had carte blanche. While there is an argument it might not be healthy for the game more broadly, Premier League revenues are such that a newly-promoted club can in theory compete financially with top European clubs when it comes to fees and wages. The assumption behind the scenes at Sunderland was that the ownership would not be prepared to do so. They were.

Ghisolfi, though, would sit opposite players with a major problem. On the eve of the season, Opta stats calculated that Sunderland had a 66.4% chance of being relegated and a 1.4% chance of finishing in the top half. Players could merely look at the last two Premier League tables and raise their eyebrows at Sunderland’s chances, particularly as a team who had won promotion through the play-offs.

It helped that Ghisolfi himself brought a level of credibility and could look those players in the eye and tell them his own story. Would he be sitting here if Sunderland weren’t serious? Sunderland also thought deeply about how to position themselves to new recruits, and selling the story of the club’s rise was a key part of it. Even before the meetings with Speakman, Ghisolfi and Le Bris, agents would be sent a video to forward to players. It showed footage of the iconic play-off campaign, including the fans lining the streets with flares and flags ahead of the second leg. Off the back of Sunderland ‘Til I Die, the club knew they had caught the eye of football lovers everywhere. Come and be part of the journey, we need you, the video told potential recruits.

The opening stages of Sunderland’s transfer window went broadly how most had expected, and immense credit is due to the pre-existing recruitment team who had been working for over two years to track potential high-profile players in the event of promotion. Noah Sadiki, for example, was a player adored by the recruitment team and Ghisolfi’s instant approval saw Sunderland move quickly. In the early stages, the club found it easier to convince younger players to make the jump. In part that was probably the naivety/fearlessness of youth, in part it was because even if the team struggled the Premier League exposure could be huge for their future careers, and through Jobe Bellingham’s move to Borussia Dortmund they had demonstrated the pathway.

This was what insiders initially expected: A spend in the region of £100 million with four of five key players added to the starting XI, possibly padded out with a bit more experience. What came next, no one saw coming.

How the arrival of Granit Xhaka changed everything

It was probably the most significant phone call in Sunderland’s modern history. Initially, Granit Xhaka didn’t think it was genuine. When he realised it really was the Sunderland chairman, his interest was piqued. A return to the Premier League, and a chance to experience something completely different: to lead a team through a relegation fight and hone his leadership skills for a future managerial career.

A further video call with senior club figures followed and Ghisolfi would later tell people close to him that he knew within minutes that Xhaka wanted the move. He could feel the fire and see the eye of the tiger. Xhaka wanted to come back to the Premier League but he also connected with the underdog story. Ghisolfi’s doubt was whether Xhaka would ultimately uproot his family given how settled and successful he had been at Bayer Leverkusen, and there were at this stage reservations about whether a deal could be struck with the Bundesliga club.

When he landed in the North East, everything changed. Ghisolfi would tell insiders that his phone was almost immediately ablaze. If there had been doubt before, now there was a surge of excitement about Sunderland. It set the stage for the final stages of the transfer window in which the club added the top-level experience they needed to go with the undoubted talent already recruited. The arrival of Brian Brobbey on deadline day illustrates the shift perfectly. Brobbey had been one of the players Sunderland had long targeted as a signing upon promotion, combining top-level experience with future potential. Brobbey was interested but not sure and initially the deal didn’t materialise, Sunderland instead moving to sign Marc Guiu on loan. When Guiu was recalled by Chelsea in bizarre circumstances, Sunderland had started the season well and their squad looked strong: Brobbey had no reservations.

Xhaka’s arrival was also instrumental in the arrival of Nordi Mukiele, another crucial figure in Sunderland’s campaign. The pair are a huge presence behind the scenes, and there have been times in the season where some club insiders have been taken aback at the level of influence they have enjoyed. The results and the strong dressing room culture have justified the faith that Ghisolfi and Le Bris have placed in them.

Ghisolfi and Xhaka enjoy a strong rapport and are credited with lifting standards behind the scenes, with the attention to detail across all aspects of the operation at the Academy of Light now on another level. Ghisolfi is hands on and exceptionally demanding, he has ruffled feathers but undoubtedly moved the club forward.

The ruthless calls that came with Sunderland’s rise

Sunderland’s success has also been a story of sheer ruthlessness. The experience of the six promoted teams before them demonstrated that they would have to do ‘something massive’, senior sources said.

Though some members of the 2024/25 campaign stepped up impressively across the campaign, many were unceremoniously left out and then moved on. Dan Neil’s camp had opted last season to wait and assess their options as he entered the final year of his contract, which was undoubtedly a source of some frustration for Sunderland. Some sources have indicated that by the time Ghisolfi and the club’s new recruitment team was in place, there was little appetite to revisit those talks in any meaningful way. While there was little argument to made that Xhaka should be the first name on the teamsheet, and indeed Neil would candidly later admit he rarely bothered knocking on Le Bris’s door as a result, there were times when he was unavailable and the midfielder’s exclusion felt as if it was about more than football. One senior figure at the club is understood to have later expressed regret at how things played out.

This ruthlessness extended right across the business across the season, with key architects of the club’s rise back to the Premier League and often on poor terms: Kristjaan Speakman opted to comment on his exit through his own social media account rather than club channels. There were figures who had worked with the club’s ownership duo for years who nevertheless found themselves surprised with how brutal some of the changes were.

To an extent this is football, and that willingness to take tough decisions is part of what allowed Sunderland to upset the odds this season. The broader question is whether Sunderland risk undoing some of the unity that carried them back to the top, and there is a specific question moving into future years about how they bring academy products through in an environment where the first team have so clearly been moved into something of a bubble. Neil’s exit set a slightly worrying precedent, even if the sight of Finn Geragusian training so regularly with the senior team in the last few weeks offers obvious encouragement. To this end, Chris Rigg’s growth in the final months of the campaign has been massive for the club’s project and how it positions itself to young players inside the building and out.

The recruitment plan that paid dividends for Sunderland

Strong recruitment is the central part of Sunderland’s success but it also speaks to strong preparation and conviction in the playing style required not just to engage fans but to thrive in a Premier League that had changed beyond all recognition since the club’s relegation.

Heading into the campaign with Le Bris at the helm gave Sunderland an instant advantage. On his arrival a year previous, Le Bris sensed a similarity between Wearside and the Brittany region he had known and worked in all his life. His instinct that his Sunderland team should be organised, physical and quick to engage their fans set them up perfectly for the challenge of surviving in the Premier League.

His vision quickly aligned with Ghisolfi, who calls himself a ‘builder’ who constructs teams to suit the club rather than his own tactical preferences. In his first meeting with fans, he asked them to name a player each who embodied what Sunderland means to them. Some cult heroes such as Lionel Perez no doubt left him heading to Wikipedia, but across the likes of Quinn, Ball, O’Nien, Hurley et al he could begin to join the dots of what a Sunderland team should look like. Be Sunderland: work hard, run, get on the front foot, excite.

Sunderland’s extensive analysis of the Premier League and the teams who had failed to survive demonstrated a need to have players capable of playing at a high intensity, as well as emphasising the importance of set plays and the ability to be dominant aerially. Sunderland tailored their recruitment accordingly and it was central to their decision to largely ignore the tried and tested model of recruiting ‘Premier League experience’. The club didn’t feel that offered good value financially, and that the French and Belgian leagues in particular matched closely the intensity of the Premier League. In both cases, most teams have moved to a very young age profile to try and develop assets and it has led to a very dynamic, high-tempo playing style. They were also markets in which Sunderland had strong links through Louis-Dreyfus, Ghisolfi and Le Bris. Meïssa N'Diaye, agent of Le Bris and close associate of Louis-Dreyfus, was an important part of the summer window and that highlighted the edge the club had on many of their rivals.

This wasn’t just about connections, though. The bargain addition of Omar Alderete, who had been playing in an unglamorous but overachieving Getafe side, demonstrated how Sunderland were able to combine data with an absolute clarity about how they were going to play to find gems in the market.

How fortune consistently favoured Sunderland

Of course, luck has been a part of their story from the off - you can’t survive from Sunderland’s starting position without it. From Guiu’s recall to being rejected by Marcin Bulka and Djorde Petrovic, which led to the arrival of Robin Roefs - who has proven to be one of the best goalkeepers in the position. Sunderland’s results have also consistently been out of step with their performance data, which even now would rank them as relegation candidates. Sunderland would argue this is reductive as they specifically signed players capable of thriving out possession and defending their box, but there’s no doubt that the room for improvement is vast. There remain plenty in the game who think the club are ripe for a regression next season, though internally Sunderland point to the growing poise and layers to their game they have shown over recent times.

The challenge for Le Bris is to prove he can take the team to another level in possession and avoid the dreaded second-season syndrome, though he would rightly counter that he navigated the team through spells where the depth of the squad was massively tested. He beat Newcastle United at St James’ Park with players on his bench who were never fit enough to feature, and the AFCON period where everything was meant to fall apart ended with the sum total of one defeat. Sunderland have turned what many thought would be a major issue into a potential source of future strength, with senior executives discussing publicly and privately how the club can build a strong presence in Africa as a football team and as a business.

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Why Sunderland fans can be optimistic about the future

Sunderland have overperformed this season, and yet when they have had their best XI available they have played good football and competed with anyone.

Though it has been kept largely under wraps, Ghisolfi has steadily overhauled the entire recruitment operation ahead of this summer. Last week, Le Bris noted that he felt the club were far better placed than they were this time last year to move in the market.

There will be interest in their best players and there are major challenges not just to kick on but to maintain what they have managed this season. It’s worth remembering, though, that this was never meant to happen. They have shown they can upset all the odds, and have every intention of doing so again. This is a hugely ambitious operation.