Manager: Gus Poyet.
Last season: 14th.
Major signings: Billy Jones (free, West Brom), Jordi Gomez (free, Wigan), Costel Pantilimon (free, Man City), Patrick van Aanholt (undisclosed, Chelsea), Jack Rodwell (£7m, Man City), Santiago Vergini (loan, Estudiantes).
Players Out: Ignacio Scocco (Newell's Old Boys, £2.1m), Phil Bardsley (free, Stoke), Craig Gardner (free, West Brom), Billy Knott (free, Bradford City), Jack Colback (free, Newcastle), John Egan (free, Gillingham), Keiren Westwood (free, Sheffield Wednesday), Louis Laing (free, Nottingham Forest), Jordan Pickford (loan, Bradford), David Vaughan (free, Nottingham Forest), Oscar Ustari (free, Newell's Old Boys), Carlos Cuellar, Andrea Dossena, Jordan Laidler, Gorrin Rodriguez, Jordan Watson (released).
Expectations: They need some big names, and fast.
Last week's signing of Jack Rodwell will have given Sunderland their first moment of cheer in what has been a frustrating summer, with last season's miraculous escape - they won four of their last five games to avoid a drop that seemed nailed on after Paolo di Canio's appalling reign - fast becoming a distant memory.
At time of writing, West Ham have made a bid for Connor Wickham, so pivotal during the run-in, and fans of the Black Cats will hope and pray that a striker who had failed to deliver until his late season heroics will swerve a move to London.
Fabio Borini has shown no interest in another season in the North-East, and a team that only scored 41 top flight goals last time around can hardly afford to be facing a new campaign with just Jozy Altidore and the injury-prone Steven Fletcher in attack.
Sunderland do have some pace on the counter-attack with Adam Johnson showing glimpses of the form that brought him to Manchester City, while there's hope that Emanuele Giaccherini will catch after a tough season of acclimatisation.
Rodwell, if he can stay fit for the first time in his career, will bring much needed poise to the centre of midfield but a defence that still relies on the aged bodies of John O'Shea and Wes Brown can only struggle against teams with even a modicum of pace.
With three weeks to go until the transfer window closes, there's still time for Poyet to convince Borini to return to the Stadium of Light and bring in another defender or two, but as things stand Sunderland look unlikely to repeat last year's dogged refusal to go down.
Irish Angle: The aforementioned O'Shea, now 33 and creaking, captains the side but Keiren Westwood has done one to Sheffield Wednesday.
If they were a fictional character... they'd be old Gil Gunderson from The Simpsons, constantly singing for his supper and just about staving off the sweet embrace of death. Or relegation.
Where will they end up? One word. Dogfight.
