How much Sunderland spent last summer as Doug King’s Coventry City transfer warning ignored | OneFootball

Coventry owner Doug King questioned Sunderland's transfer approach despite their excellent season so far on their return to the Premier League.

Coventry City will have one eye on the Premier League after their fantastic recent run has given them an 11-point cushion at the top of the Championship.

Whilst that gap could be cut to nine points if Ipswich win their game in hand, Frank Lampard’s side are in a commanding position, and, more importantly, they are playing some very good football and have real momentum and belief.

Of course, nobody at the club will be counting their chickens, but the recruitment team at the CBS Arena will be planning for both scenarios.

Owner Doug King has also discussed the possibility of promotion, and he raised eyebrows when he claimed they would look to take a different approach to Sunderland, after stating they had ‘lost’ some of their ‘identity’ due to the high turnover of players in the summer.

Sunderland’s £180m+ transfer spree has paid off in style

Sunderland took a risk by making wholesale changes, and it may have been difficult to move on so many players who had helped them win promotion.

However, it’s a decision that has paid off spectacularly, which is why there was some pushback against King’s comments.

As it stands, the Black Cats are already effectively safe, and they haven’t really had to worry about relegation for much of the campaign. Plus, following their derby day win over Newcastle last time out, they will feel they have a genuine chance of qualifying for Europe.

So, in many ways, Sunderland will be seen as a benchmark for most newly-promoted teams, but even though they have been excellent, it’s not like they have done it on the cheap.

The figures shared by Transfermarkt indicate the Wearside outfit spent over £180m in the past two windows, with the bulk of that coming in the summer.

They did bring in around £40m in sales after Jobe Bellingham joined Borussia Dortmund and Tommy Watson completed his switch to Brighton, but it was still a substantial net spend.

Coventry City will need a near-perfect summer transfer window to stay in the Premier League

The jump up to the Premier League is huge, so Coventry are going to need to recruit well, and FLW has been told that the Sky Blues should try to ‘do a Sunderland’ if promotion is confirmed.

That’s a view many would echo, but it’s worth stating that Leeds are likely to survive, and they have several players who featured in the Championship in their XI right now, including Karl Darlow, Joe Rodon, Pascal Struijk, Jayden Bogle and Ethan Ampadu.

So, there’s no right or wrong approach, and it’s not like a certain figure will guarantee survival, but what isn’t up for debate is that Coventry will need to add to their squad, and they can’t afford to get much wrong when it comes to transfers.

Obviously, that will put a lot of pressure on the recruitment team, but the club should be an attractive option to players across the world if they can offer Premier League football.

You can be sure that work is going on in the background over potential targets, and providing Coventry seal promotion, they can then start the hard work, and it will be interesting to see how comparable their business is to Sunderland’s, and if it has the same impact.