Premier League 2026-27 preview No 19: Sunderland

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 14th (NB: this is not necessarily Louise Taylor’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 7th

Prospects

After finishing seventh last season, Sunderland go into the new campaign engaged in continental combat for the first time since a brief adventure in the old Cup Winners’ Cup in 1973-74. Will their startling upward trajectory under Régis Le Bris continue or will they succumb to the dreaded second-season syndrome? No one is quite sure.

While many like to highlight Sunderland’s relegation-level XG statistics last season, it is important to note that a steadily improving squad lost six players to the Africa Cup of Nations in the winter. Moreover, no key player has been sold this summer, team spirit is superb and pre-season performances have been reassuringly convincing. Le Bris accepts coping with Thursday night football will be a challenge for a club that played in League One as recently as 2022, but insists it is something to be enjoyed rather than feared.

It helps that Sunderland still have their captain, Granit Xhaka, controlling midfield. If Xhaka’s decision to recommit to life at the Stadium of Light despite serious interest from Chelsea lifted the pre-season mood, further optimism is provided by the presence of high-calibre individuals, including the fans’ favourite Enzo Le Fée, Chris Rigg, Robin Roefs, Noah Sadiki and Nordi Mukiele, in a versatile squad containing several players comfortable in assorted positions. Brian Brobbey is the sort of robust centre-forward few defenders enjoy marking. “We are growing together,” says Le Bris. “We’ve shown the team is strong.”

Off-field picture

Sunderland are majority-owned by the 29-year-old Swiss-French businessman and trust fund billionaire Kyril Louis-Dreyfus. The son of the late former Marseille owner Robert Louis-Dreyfus has a 64%stake in the club while the remaining 36% is held by the Uruguayan businessman and politician Juan Sartori. The strong relationship between Le Bris and the director of football, Florent Ghisolfi, has helped ensure on-pitch stability, although the past year has brought considerable off-field change, with several key executives replaced as Sunderland’s commercial strategy pivots in a more international direction. While the team toured the United States this summer, other marketing efforts have been concentrated on Africa, with a lucrative, and controversial, front-of-shirt sponsorship with Visit Ghana close to being finalised. More locally, the regeneration of the area adjacent to the Stadium of Light is transforming a post-industrial landscape.

Owner-fan relationship

If Louis-Dreyfus initially attracted a degree of suspicion and scepticism on taking the helm in 2021, he has earned the trust of the fanbase. Supporters were particularly impressed that the owner contacted Xhaka and convinced the Switzerland captain to join from Bayer Leverkusen last summer. Less positively, a creep towards increased corporate hospitality, allied to a divisive new club membership scheme, has polarised season-ticket holders.

The manager

Le Bris enjoys a spot of close-season surfing on the beaches of his native Brittany, so it is perhaps appropriate that the 50-year-old rode a footballing wave last season. His 2025 Championship playoff winners hit the Premier League ground running and proved they could last the course. Along the way, Le Bris parked his tanks on Newcastle’s front lawn by choreographing two league wins over their rivals. Le Bris holds a doctorate in physiology and biomechanics and a diploma in the mental training of elite athletes. He spent a decade as a highly regarded youth coach at Lorient before taking charge of the first team in 2022, with his love of trigonometry underpinning a coaching philosophy that views football as fundamentally being about triangles.

Star signing

Sunderland tried and failed to sign Thomas Meunier from Lille a year ago, but patience has been rewarded. At the time of writing, the 34-year-old free transfer is the sole summer signing – quite a contrast to the 14 new faces 12 months ago – but at least two more new recruits are expected before the window closes. Meunier, who has 83 Belgium caps and played at the World Cup, will compete with Mukiele and Trai Hume at right-back. The experience he has acquired throughout a career involving stints at Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund should prove useful in the Europa League.

Stat attack

If matches were decided by Opta’s expected points metric, Sunderland would have been relegated last season. Instead they are preparing for a Europa League campaign after finishing 11 places higher than the XG figures implied they deserved. It was a wider margin between statistical performance and outcome than any other team in Europe’s big five leagues experienced, for good or bad.

Set for a breakthrough

Tom Proctor, the son of Sunderland’s first-team coach and former forward, Michael Proctor, is only 17 and starting his second year as an academy scholar.He was included in the first-team squad for the pre-season tour of the United States. Proctor has impressed with his technical ability, awareness and eye for goal. With the squad set to be stretched by Europa League involvement, it will be no surprise if a player who joined Sunderland’s academy at the age of six makes a competitive first-team debut this season.

World Cup impact

Sunderland had 12 players at the World Cup, more than Real Madrid, and such visibility delighted executives charged with growing the club’s commercial revenue streams. Wilson Isidor scored Haiti’s first World Cup goal since 1974 while Brobbey struck three times for the Netherlands. The entire group has since been joined by Meunier, who represented Belgium in the United States.

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