Exclusive: What Don Goodman has said about Sunderland, Leeds United & Burnley - 'ruthless' claim made | OneFootball

Don Goodman has commented on how he has reacted to the promoted Championship trio all starting life in the Premier League strongly.

Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman believes the recruitment of Leeds United, Sunderland and Burnley has been a key reason for their positive starts to the Premier League season.

After two consecutive seasons of the promoted trio from the Championship immediately relegated from the top-flight, the apple cart has been disrupted this term, with Leeds, Sunderland and Burnley competing in the top-flight and staking their cases for survival.

The Black Cats in particular have had an extraordinary start, with their victory at Chelsea last weekend lifting them to as high as second in the table.

Leeds and Burnley are hanging more precariously nearer the bottom three, but are stringing positive results together and taking advantage of the misfortunes of Wolves, Nottingham Forest and West Ham.

Whether this trend continues remains to be seen, but it’s certainly a refreshing change to see that the gap between the Championship and Premier League isn’t as big as first feared.

With this in mind, Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman has spoken to FLW about their starts to the season, outlining a key reason as to why the promoted trio have been successful in the opening stages of their top-flight campaigns.

Don Goodman highlights effective recruitment as the reason for Leeds United, Sunderland & Burnley PL success

Speaking exclusively to Football League World, Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman believes Leeds United, Sunderland and Burnley have nailed their recruitment over the summer transfer window, with the rise in quality of their squads a key reason for their positive starts to the Premier League season.

When asked if he was shocked about their starts to the new term, Goodman said: “I think the obvious answer, as a collective, would be yes. Leeds, Sunderland and Burnley as a collective, are doing fantastically well, and it's brilliant to see.

“As somebody that's championed the Championship and loves the Championship, to see that it's not always the teams that go up that will be guaranteed to come back down, and if you get your recruitment right, I've always said you give yourself a chance and these three teams have had to be ruthless.

“They all won last weekend (in matchday nine), and when you look at their team selection, Burnley had six new players, Leeds six new players. That is in the starting XI, that's not even counting the subs that were brought on, and Sunderland seven new players, so pretty much new teams.

“The clubs had to be ruthless in order to compete. They were, they’ve got their transfer business right, and they’ve given themselves the best chance of survival, probably unlike the last six teams, who I said time and time again I felt they got their recruitment wrong.”

When looking at the recruitment of Leeds United, Sunderland and Burnley, there has been a big emphasis on bringing players in with a multitude of Premier League experience.

The Whites bolstered their squad with the additions of former Everton man Dominic Calvert-Lewin and ex-Newcastle United midfielder Sean Longstaff, while overseas signings of Noah Okafor, Lucas Perri and Anton Stach are showing their worth under Daniel Farke.

For Sunderland, the acquisition of Granit Xhaka was one of the standout pieces of business during the summer transfer window, while Nordi Mukiele, Omar Alderete and Robin Roefs have been so influential to the team maintaining a watertight defence.

And for Burnley, recruiting someone of Kyle Walker’s know-how was a huge feat, while Martin Dubravka in between the sticks offers leadership and reliability after they suffered a huge blow by losing James Trafford to Manchester City.

Future teams that gain promotion out of the Championship need to study what these three clubs have done and build on it, with the previous six relegated teams’ recruitment giving them a far from realistic chance of remaining in the big time.

This could be the shift that is needed to see the Premier League stay as competitive as possible, and it’s refreshing to see that the disparity between the second-tier and the top-flight isn’t appearing to be lingering on for much longer.