SIMON GRAYSON is going to do everything he can to lead Sunderland to promotion this season, even if the spending patterns in the Championship highlights just how difficult it will be to achieve that goal.

While the likes of Middlesbrough and Wolves have invested heavily in their squads, and others such as Sheffield Wednesday, Fulham and Aston Villa topping up what they already had in their ranks last season, Grayson has had to do things the harder way.

That has not stopped Grayson from smiling, even though the build-up to tonight’s season opener with Derby County was overshadowed by Darron Gibson’s foul-mouth outbursts to fans at a County Durham hotel after the 5-0 drubbing to Celtic.

The Sunderland boss has done his best to keep the players focused on preparations for the visit of Derby, and he is desperate to oversee a positive start to life under his watch after a pre-season when he has soon got to see Sunderland’ problems for himself.

Despite offloading Jordan Pickford for £30m and Vito Mannone, Sunderland have spent just over £1m on four new permanent signings; the most expensive were the £500,000 paid for James Vaughan and Jason Steele.

Jeremain Lens is also on the verge of completing a move to Besiktas, where he has agreed a three-year deal, and Grayson will hope that helps to bring in another player or two after the Derby date.

But former Preston boss Grayson still wants to ensure Sunderland are in a position to compete for an immediate return to the Premier League, however tough.

“This football club has high expectancy levels and rightly so,” said Grayson. “Also there is a sense of realism as well. As I said from day one, we have a respectful budget. We have not got the biggest and we have not got the lowest. Ultimately we are not in a position other clubs are.

“We are still an ex-Premier League club with some good players on our hands. We want to be getting in the top reaches of the division. We want to be getting back up like every other team in the Championship. We have got that ambition.

“But also people realise there is not that money to spend, but we will put together a group to be competitive and do the best we can.”

One of the attractions of the Sunderland job, though, was that Grayson would still have a bigger wage budget to that he worked with at Huddersfield, Leeds United and Preston – and he achieved results at all of those places.

He said: “That's where we are as a football club. We can't go and spend millions of pounds on players now and I knew that when I came into the club. I also knew I could work with the players we've got, who are decent enough.

“I also knew the new ones who have come in would give us something different. They want to be here for the right reasons - they are not coming here for the money. They want to play and run around and do well.

“We've brought six players in and probably spent about a million pounds. When you've got McGeady and the boys from Everton, who are good young hungry players, then we are getting where we need to be. Ultimately we still have more work to do.”

Even after Lens departs, Sunderland would still expect to lose the likes of Wahbi Khazri and Lamine Kone before the end of the transfer window. Grayson would still like a number of players in a variety of areas, with Aston Villa’s Ross McCormack, Bournemouth’s Max Gradel and Preston’s Jordan Hugill three of those most likely.

He has had an interest in a number of others too, like West Ham’s Rob Snodgrass, but the financial side of such a deal has proven too problematic. He still thinks, though, that Sunderland can start the season well.

Grayson said: “Our squad and every squad in the country will not be ready until the end of August because you never know where you will be with your group of players. Every player at every club would be available to move on, that’s why I am a big fan of the window shutting before the season starts.

“Then I would say we were ready because I know what group of players we have to work with. That isn’t the case. What we are in good shape in is the work we have done on the training pitch. What the players have taken from Saturday’s game, that was a game where anything that did go wrong could go wrong, hopefully those things won’t happen again.”

Sunderland are not well-fancied to make a quick return to the top-flight and that doesn’t concern Grayson.

He said: “There are no real stand-out teams. You always felt Newcastle would be a team to go up last season. Middlesbrough have kept the bulk of their squad together and added significant money to that. On their day Fulham were one of the best in the division last season but didn't go up. Wolves have had a go.

“Money doesn't automatically guarantee promotion, it's the teams that have the will and the fight for a long season. You need the mental and physical strength to deal with Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday. That's the biggest part of it. It's a real long slog for everybody.

“It just shows you how big the Premier League is now. Two or three years ago certain players would have been playing regularly in the Premier League, but they are being phased out because of the money being spent there.

“Ultimately players want to play football so they are now being sold to Championship clubs. That's making it such a strong competitive division. If the money keeps increasing at the top, it is going to make the Championship even tougher with each year.”

SUNDERLAND (possible): Steele; Jones, Browning, O’Shea, Galloway; Cattermole, Ndong; McGeady, Khazri, Grabban; Vaughan.