MART POOM makes an emotional return to Derby County today, claiming Sunderland's summer sales have improved their promotion chances and safeguarded the club from the financial meltdown that forced his former employers to cash in on him.

Poom left Derby last November after the Rams, then in their first season back in the Nationwide League, sold off their most prized assets to keep them afloat.

As well as losing their goalkeeper, Derby allowed Malcolm Christie and Chris Riggott to join Middlesbrough after the gamble on keeping their squad together in an attempt to bounce back into the Premiership backfired spectacularly.

They flirted with relegation last season and while Sunderland are in the upper echelons of Division One, Derby have made a poor start to this campaign.

Sunderland's success in bringing in around £14m during the summer eased their immediate financial problems and also gave Mick McCarthy and his squad a fresh start.

Poom, 31, reckons the Black Cats are now in much better shape than Derby, who have at least won their last two League matches.

He said: "Sunderland have learned from Derby because they sold so many players. The only way forward was to move players on and to reduce the wage bill.

"At first, Derby tried to keep hold of their best players, but in the middle of last season they realised they couldn't do it.

"They had to sell some players and in the summer they had to release a lot of experienced professionals like Fabrizio Ravanelli, Robert Lee and Craig Burley.

"It saddens me to see how they're doing because they're still trying to turn things around, but Sunderland managed to do it all in the summer."

Poom cost Sunderland an initial fee of just £900,000 when he ended his five-year love affair with Derby.

The Estonia international has not played against the Rams since quitting the club and today's game carries huge significance for him.

Poom said "It should be an emotional day for me. I'm looking forward to it, particularly as I didn't really have the chance to say goodbye to the Derby fans because the move was very unexpected.

"I have some great memories of my time at Derby: we won at Old Trafford on my debut in April 1997, and I was player of the year in 1999-2000.

"It will be strange to go into the away dressing room at Pride Park and warm up on the other side of the pitch.

"But I want to do well for Sunderland and hopefully I'll keep a clean sheet.

"I enjoyed my time at Derby immensely. I have great respect for the fans and also for the club; it's a very good club.

"Derby have some good youngsters and George Burley has been able to bring in some experience.

"He's signed Ian Taylor, Junior and Mathias Svensson, and they've all scored recently.

"Our defence will have to be very focused and make sure we defend very well against them.

"We'll have to play better than we did in the first half against Stoke. Maybe we were a little bit complacent that night, and Stoke seemed to be more aggressive and more up for it.

"We showed in the second half that we can play better; we should have started the game like that.

"It's a difficult division and any team can beat anybody on any day. And for most teams, playing against Sunderland is a big game.

"We've got a few injuries, and it will be harder now for the manager because the squad isn't as big as it was. But there are still quality players here who want to impress the manager when they come into the team."