Sunderland may have spent more than £100m in the transfer market this summer, but despite that they are still among the favourites to go down this season.
The Mackems beat Sheffield United in the play-off final last season to book their place in the Premier League once again and have had a busy summer trying to ensure they stay there with plenty of new faces coming in.
More than £19m was spent on Enzo Le Fée from Roma and £30m was spent bringing in Habib Diarra from Strasborg.
More than £17m was spent on Noah Sadiki and nearly £20million was spent on Chemsdine Talbi as well.
Sunderland spent £21million on Simon Adingra and added some more Premier League experience by signing former Arsenal man Granit Xhaka from Bayer Leverkusen for £17million.
They have also spent over £10million on Omar Alderete from Getafe.
Losing Tom Watson, whose goal got them to the Premier League in the first place, and Jobe Bellingham was a blow, but despite that Sunderland do look like they are coming into this season considerably stronger than they ended the last one – but none of that matters to the bookies who have them as the second favourite when it comes to relegation this season.
They are 2/5 with William Hill and Boylesports and 4/11 with Ladbrokes to get relegated and a lack of trust with new signings may play a part in that.
Xhaka and Simon Adingra have both got Premier League pedigree, but Sunderland have signed a lot of players who will be new to the league and therefore might take some time to gel.
They do not have the hardest run to start the season, but that does mean they need to make their points count early on, which is never an easy thing to do with a new look team.
What also counts against them is the fact that across the league there do not seem to be many weak links at all this season.
Brentford, Wolves and Brighton have also lost players or managers or both, but the likes of Fulham and Crystal Palace are still punching above their weight with considerable talent in their teams.
Everton have signed Jack Grealish, while West Ham have spent big money on a signing or two.
It means that the pool of teams who Sunderland can lure in will be not big. The bookies have Sunderland, Burnley and Leeds as all odds-on favourites for relegation with only Leeds at evens at William Hill looking like they have a chance.
Brenford and Wolves are next up, but the gap from them and then West Ham on shows that the bookies believe that it will be one of the three newly promoted teams, or the likes of Brentford who will struggle this year.
Sunderland have spent big to ensure that does not happen as they know that the rewards for staying in the Premier League are worth it – but after two straight seasons where the three newly promoted teams have been relegated – they know the odds are stacked against them.
