Sunderland have agreed a significant fee with Championship promotion hopefuls Wrexham ahead of the new season

It's a deal that was simply too good to turn down.

In the final game of Sunderland's pre-season tour of the US, Anthony Patterson was introduced from the bench and impressed in a composed cameo. Sources behind the scenes on Wearside had noted how hard the goalkeeper hard worked in the off-season and this was evidence of it, quick off his line and assured in his handling. Some Sunderland fans began to wonder whether the club would be best keeping the now experienced goalkeeper as number two, and loaning out Melker Ellborg to get him regular minutes. In truth Patterson's return was a farewell, with the goalkeeper poignantly taking the armband as he represented his boyhood club for the last time. It surely did no harm that he showed his sharpness in front of his new employers.

At that stage, there was some doubt over whether any club would be willing to meet Sunderland’s valuation but the club held their nerve and that has paid off handsomely. Wrexham have agreed to pay an initial £8 million to sign the 26-year-old, with additional add-ons potentially realised in future depending on performance. It's a chunky fee, yes, but could anyone argue that it's not a fair one? Promotions are won in the two penalty boxes and Patterson has now proven over a period of four-and-a-half seasons to be one of the most dependable goalkeepers in the EFL. His save percentage continues to compare well, and he is now starting to enter his peak years where he will benefit from all the lessons learned through his career to date.

The agreed fee also underlines why it was simply never realistic to expect Patterson to stay on as number two this season. The player himself, having for so long been a regular in the starting XI, wanted to play regularly and wasn't keen on another loan move that could essentially put him back at square one a year down the line. Sunderland were never going to stand in his way given his contribution to the club's two promotions, and the player's understandable stance also meant that any kind of contract extension was unlikely.

As such, this summer was the sweet spot for Sunderland in terms of a sale and using it to further bolster their SCR position. Academy graduates represent pure profit in SCR teams, and so this is a very strong sale for the Black Cats.

It's important to note that it isn't a fundamental game changer, which suddenly allows Florent Ghisolfi to go out and sign a long list of players. The new SCR rules work by calculating a loss/profit from each player's book value at the point of sale, and averaging that out over the next three seasons. This is specifically done to prevent clubs from using a bumper sale to fund a short-term and unsustainable surge in spending on fees and wages. What Patterson's expected departure will do, however, is further strengthen Sunderland's fundamentals. That initial £8 million fee will all go into the club's profit calculation, meaning a guaranteed boost of over £2.5 million across the next three seasons. This of course offset by the arrival of Melker Ellborg last January as his replacement, with that initial fee of £3 million spread out in accounting terms through amortisation over the course of his five-year contract. We can make a rough estimate, then, that this sale will benefit Sunderland to the tune of around £2 million in their next three seasons of SCR calculations and that could rise if things go well for Patterson and Wrexham.

The sale is also important because at some stage over the next couple of years, the profit booked from the sale of Jobe Bellingham, Tommy Watson and Jack Clarke will drop off as the SCR cycle renews. In the sales of Patterson and Mayenda, Sunderland have ensured they won't suffer a sudden shortfall to account for down the line.

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Patterson's sale also speaks to a broader challenge that Florent Ghisolfi is slowly but steadily working through. At the start of the summer, the number of players on the books at Sunderland who realistically had no chance of featuring in Régis Le Bris's plans this season ran into double figure. Alone they were all a long way from being in the top tier of wage earners at the club, but some were signed on Premier League wages and those that weren't had earned a bump from the club's promotion from the top tier. With many of these departures, players will be moving onto a smaller wage elsewhere and so Sunderland will likely have had to make some contribution to pave the way. But even so, Ghisolfi is trimming the club's wage bill gradually and it is no exaggeration to say that when he has completed his work it will probably cover the wage costs of two new arrivals.

Sunderland were in an excellent position to invest heavily last summer, but it's important to remember that they'll carry with them the cost of that through the amortisation of those contracts in the next few years. Their SCR position is a good one and explains why they voted in support of its implementation, but it is a position that needs constant maintenance. It sometimes means making pragmatic decisions and the positive from this one is that everyone benefits, with Patterson now getting the move to a very ambitious club that he deserves for his excellent contribution to Sunderland's progress.

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