Sunderland's 'sustainable model' means the club must work within its own resources, according to boss Alex Neil. Chairman and majority shareholder Kyril Louis-Dreyfus is keen to avoid going down the same route which saw previous owner Ellis Short burn through hundreds of millions of pounds in a failed attempt to bring success to the club.
The model has previously been outlined by sporting director Kristjaan Speakman, and now head coach Neil has explained how it works in relation to the club's transfer dealings in the build-up to their return to the Championship after winning promotion from League One via the play-offs last term. "We have a strategy where our job is to go out and find the best young talent we can afford, bring them in, develop them, make them better, and then we have a hardcore of senior players that are there to help facilitate that," said Neil, whose team kicks-off its Championship campaign at home to Coventry City tomorrow lunchtime.
"That's how we are going about our business. You hear about a sustainable model, and that means we are trying to do it within the resources that we generate as a club.
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"We don't have a wealthy benefactor like the club had in previous years who is flinging money in. At the moment, there is a shortfall and the owners have to make that up each year so they are putting their own money in, but we want to try to come away from that as best we can over the next few years."
Short is thought to have spent around £250m during his ten-year reign, including money spent in the transfer market, wages, and - when he sold up to Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven in 2018 - paying off the club's debts. But despite his outlay, only in one season did the Black Cats finish in the top half of the Premier League, with his time at the helm mainly spent fighting relegation.
And in his final two years in charge, Sunderland suffered calamitous back-to-back relegations which saw them sink from the top flight to League One, and only after a four-year stay in the third tier have they now climbed back into the Championship. Louis-Dreyfus bought into the club in February last year, has since taken a controlling stake in the club, and is determined to do things differently.
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