FOR a vivid illustration of how Sunderland used to conduct their deadline-day business in the Stewart Donald era, you only have to turn to Netflix.

The chaotic signing of Will Grigg in 2019 was a perfect illustration of how not to operate in the final hours of the transfer window. ‘We need someone to replace Josh Maja. Well, Will Grigg has scored a lot of goals for Wigan hasn’t he? See if they’ll take £1m. Maybe £1.5m? We might go to £2m’.

By the time Grigg was holding up a scarf outside the Academy of Light, Donald had agreed to a £3m deal that still represents the record fee paid for a player by a club in League One. Two-and-a-half years on, and while Grigg joined Rotherham United on loan on Tuesday, Sunderland are literally still paying for Donald’s panicked negotiating given it is understood they will continue to fund a proportion of the striker’s wages until his deal expires next summer.

When it came to operating in the transfer market on Donald’s watch, the thought process seemed to be, ‘We’re Sunderland, we’ll pay more than anyone else in the division’. Even under Phil Parkinson, when the Donald era was coming towards an end, the constant moaning about the EFL’s salary-cap regulations – an admittedly-flawed set of rules that have subsequently been abolished – seemed to suggest that Sunderland’s key figures still felt an ability to outspend their League One rivals was the club’s best, and perhaps only, way of hauling themselves out of the third tier.

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus arrived promising something different. In his first interview after his replacement of Donald as majority shareholder was confirmed, Sunderland’s new owner pledged to achieve “sustainability and success” through “doing things differently” and having a “long-term vision”. “It’s a fresh start,” said Louis-Dreyfus. “For many years now, the club has had no real long-term plan.”

Even at that stage, the overhaul had begun. Lee Johnson, a progressive innovative thinker, had been appointed as head coach. Kristjaan Speakman was in place as sporting director, a pivotal strategic role that had been expunged by the previous regime. Steve Davison had been announced as chief operating officer, and a few months later, a major overhaul of the academy was completed. In March this year, James Young was appointed as Sunderland’s first official head of analysis and data.

The aim was to introduce a complete change of ethos. No more knee-jerk recruitment decisions or fire sales of talented academy products. No more cost-cutting in the scouting and data analysis department, moves that had left the new regime with little or no information or statistics on potential targets or even opponents. No more veering off in wildly-divergent directions every time results dipped or key personnel moved on.

Speaking shortly after Young’s appointment this spring, Speakman explained Sunderland’s new recruitment philosophy. “The use of data is becoming more prevalent in our industry and our interpretation and application of it will play an important role within our strategy,” he said. “This represents a significant change to our operational processes.”

This summer’s transfer window has been the first since that operational change was introduced, and it clearly marks a radical departure from the past.

Sunderland signed nine senior players this summer, and also re-signed Aiden McGeady and Luke O’Nien, and the type of deal agreed has differed markedly to those signed off in the first three seasons of the club’s time in League One.

There has been a conscious effort to reduce the average age of the squad, as well as a targeted pursuit of loan deals involving players at some of the leading clubs in Europe. Callum Doyle from Manchester City, Frederik Alves from West Ham, Nathan Broadhead from Everton, Thorben Hoffman from Bayern Munich – Sunderland have identified talented, unexposed youngsters they hope can flourish in the third tier. Some players, like Dennis Cirkin and Niall Huggins, have arrived permanently. Others, like Hoffman and Leon Dajaku, have signed loans that could become permanent transfers in the future.

The recruitment drive feels both sustainable and well thought-out, descriptions that could hardly have been applied to much of Sunderland’s business in the recent past. It is also indicative of new competitive advantages the Black Cats feel they can exploit instead of just relying on flashing the cash. Would the likes of Bayern and Manchester City have allowed some of their most talented young players to join Accrington or Morecambe? Possibly, but I’d argue it’s extremely unlikely.

They’re keen for them to go to Sunderland though because while the Black Cats might be a League One club, their youngsters will be operating out of a Premier League environment. They’ll benefit from state-of-the-art training facilities at the Academy of Light and have recourse to Sunderland’s top-class medical department if required. They’ll be playing in front of 30,000 fans on a matchday, experiencing the pressures that inevitably brings. And they’ll be working under Johnson, a coach with a clear playing philosophy in tune with that adopted by plenty of top-class sides.

Clearly, it is much too early to make a definitive judgement on whether Sunderland’s new approach will work. The early evidence, especially relating to Doyle, is positive. Cirkin, Alves, Huggins and Broadhead also look more than capable of holding their own at League One level, although their game time has so far been more limited.

Ultimately, the aim is to be back in the Championship come May. For now though, Sunderland can at least claim to have taken a significant step in the right direction.