LEE CATTERMOLE admits Sunderland are paying a heavy price for yet another summer of huge upheaval, but the Black Cats skipper remains confident his side will once again turn things around despite their slow start.

Having contributed to a run of just one defeat in the final 11 matches of last season, Cattermole went into the summer hoping for a rare period of stability under manager Sam Allardyce. Instead, Allardyce left to take charge of England, David Moyes was appointed with Sunderland’s transfer activity having been placed on ice, and August witnessed a frantic scramble that resulted in the arrival of ten new signings and saw just about everything at the club turned upside down.

Every summer, the story seems to be the same, and a weary Cattermole is clearly growing tired of the constant churn and upheaval that have characterised his seven seasons at the Stadium of Light.

The effect of chopping and changing managers can be seen in Sunderland’s early-season results, with Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at Tottenham meaning it is still 2012 since the Black Cats last won a league game in either August or September.

That is a wretched record, but while Cattermole and his team-mates once again find themselves playing catch-up, the 28-year-old midfielder has seen sufficient signs of promise to feel optimistic about the rest of the campaign. A past master at acts of escapology, Cattermole is confident there is more than enough time to turn things around.

“If you look at the way we finished last year, you were heading into the summer thinking, ‘Let’s stick with the same squad again, and let’s start next season with the same attitude where we all know each other now’,” he said. “But things change.

“We lost the manager – we all know inside the club what went on – and it’s difficult to take when pundits come out and criticise so early in the season.

“I’ve been here before in terms of a start to the season like this, and it’s very difficult. Every season, we seem to make a number of changes, and if you’re doing that, you lose your team spirit to start with because there’s a lot of new faces and people coming in.

“There’s a lot to ask of the new players because they’re coming into a team where no one knows each other. It’s going to be difficult to start with, but we’re going to get there. The boys are working hard behind the scenes, and the manager is working hard with his ideas, and you can see that it’s coming.”

There were signs of improvement in Sunday’s performance, with Sunderland displaying a greater degree of organisation and resolve than had been apparent as they shipped three goals without reply to Everton six days earlier.

Cattermole’s return from injury helped bolster the central-midfield area, with club-record signing Didier Ndong also showing signs of promise as he made his first Premier League start.

Clearly, there is a need to cut out individual errors such as the one from Papy Djilobodji that enabled Harry Kane to score the only goal of the game, but as they spend more time together on the training ground, Sunderland’s players should begin to iron out some of the flaws that have been evident in their early-season displays.

“Being hard to beat comes from people realising the demands of the league, and what you’ve got to do to get a result,” said Cattermole. “It’s so hard to get a result in this league because every team is strong.

“If you look at Sunderland in recent years, we’ve made a lot of changes for one reason or another. That makes it difficult for us. But the lads who are here are committed, and we’re going to turn it around, simple as that. We just need to stay patient, keep believing in what we’re doing, and show the right attitude.”

Cattermole’s attitude has rarely been questioned throughout his Sunderland career, and with Moyes having recruited a large number of young players last month, the skipper’s leadership qualities and organisational skills will be crucial as the squad evolves over the next few months.

He was forced to sit out the first four league games of the season after undergoing a double hernia operation in the summer, with the injury first having flared up at the end of last season.

“I had a good pre-season, but I knew there was a problem there and I knew something was happening towards the end of last season,” he said. “We got to the bottom of it, and it turned out it was a double hernia.

“It crept up on me after the (Borussia) Dortmund game. I’d played all pre-season and it was here and there, but then it really flared up after the Dortmund game.

“I was gutted because it meant I had to miss the first month, which is a crucial month. But I’ve worked hard and been back in training for a couple of months, and getting 90 minutes under my belt will do me the world of good.”