THE amount of money a club spends is not a definitive determinant of where they will finish in the league table, but increasingly it can be regarded as a pretty reliable indicator. With that in mind, and even with Fabio Borini and Adnan Januzaj being lined up for loan deals, it is worrying to reflect on Sunderland’s transfer activity since the end of last season.

Given that they have spent the last three years embroiled in a frantic battle against relegation, the Black Cats headed into this summer in need of major surgery. Dick Advocaat talked of the need for “four or five quality additions” when it looked like he was heading through the exit door for good in May, and with their rivals in the bottom half of the table awash with cash thanks to the Premier League’s forthcoming new television deal, there was a pressing need for Sunderland to at least keep pace with the transfer business of those around them, if not surpass it in terms of expenditure and quality of players brought in.

Instead, we head into the final fortnight of the transfer window with the club’s net spend of around £6m one of the lowest – if not the lowest – in the whole of the top-flight. With transfer fees increasingly remaining undisclosed, it is hard to make a definitive call on just how much top-flight teams are spending. By any measure, however, Sunderland’s total outlay is paltry compared to most of the other teams hoping to pull away from the relegation battle at the foot of the table. Signing Borini and Januzaj on loan would do little to change that.

Jeremain Lens’ £8m arrival from Dynamo Kiev was an eye-catching addition, and on the evidence of his pre-season displays, the Dutchman will significantly improve Sunderland’s attacking options. But his signing can be offset against the £9m deal that took Connor Wickham to Crystal Palace, and he is the only arrival who can be really said to fit the criteria that Advocaat outlined at the start of the summer.

Younes Kaboul boasts plenty of experience, but his injury record and performances over the last two or three years hardly make him a radical improvement on what Sunderland already had in their back four. Adam Matthews is a solid addition from Celtic, although he hasn’t been starting ahead of Billy Jones, while Yann M’Vila could be a significant signing if he can iron out the disciplinary problems that saw him dismissed while making his debut for the under-21s.

All in all though, it all feels a bit underwhelming, especially when posited against the likes of Crystal Palace, who have signed Yohan Cabaye, Patrick Bamford and Bakary Sako as well as Wickham, Stoke, who this week added Xherdan Shaqiri to a list of signings that already included Glen Johnson, Ibrahim Affelay and Juanmi, and, dare I say it, Newcastle United, who have shelled out more than £34m to sign Georginio Wijnaldum, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Chancel Mbemba.

There is still time for Sunderland to redress the balance, and the arrival of Borini and Januzaj would undoubtedly enhance the club’s attacking options. Given that they will only be coming on loan though – a situation that means the Black Cats will effectively be starting from scratch again next summer - Advocaat’s recent comments about the transfer market remain alarming.

The Dutchman has been talking about the size of the current wage bill, which is already close to the limits permitted under Financial Fair Play (FFP) and represents a worrying 67 per cent of turnover, and the fact that Sunderland are still paying off instalments owed on transfers that stretch back two or three years as explanations for why the scope for further investment is limited.

If his words are true – and there is no reason to suggest they are not - they are a pretty damning indictment on a recruitment system that has felt out of control for the majority of Ellis Short’s time at the helm. If Sunderland are still paying for players who have contributed to three successive relegation battles – and shelling out sky-high wages into the bargain – that doesn’t say much about the people who have been scouting transfer targets and negotiating contract deals in the last few years.

Yet even if Sunderland’s wriggle room is limited, that shouldn’t be a complete barrier to further investment. Other clubs have found ways of working around FFP regulations, and given that the new television deal that starts in 2016 guarantees the club finishing bottom of the Premier League in the 2016-17 season a minimum of £99m, if there was ever a time to speculate to accumulate, this is surely it.

The elephant in the room is the extent of Short’s desire to continue investing into a club that seems to be perennially at risk of dropping into the Championship. The American doesn’t do press interviews, so it is impossible to ask him whether his ambitions for Sunderland remain as bright as they were when he agreed to take over from the Drumaville consortium in 2009, or whether the constant squandering of his cash on sub-standard signings has diminished his desire to throw more good money after bad.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest his interest has not waned. He still attends matches, was as enthused as anyone by 2014’s run to the Capital One Cup final, and travelled to Canada to hold face-to-face talks with Advocaat last month.

Yet when it comes to the hard currency of investing in the squad, it is increasingly difficult to argue that Short is giving his club the best possible chance of hauling themselves away from the foot of the table. There are teams in the Championship – one of which is just a few miles down the road – who have spent significantly more money than Sunderland this summer.

Even before the Black Cats capitulated so spectacularly at Leicester last weekend, that would always have been a worry. If you stand still for too long in the Premier League, you find yourself going backwards. And in the case of Sunderland, there isn’t much room to retreat into.