The Blueprint for Surviving the Premier League - And It’s Not What Promoted Clubs Think

The Blueprint for Surviving the Premier League - And It’s Not What Promoted Clubs Think

Although the main storylines of the season so far may concern Liverpool’s concerning form in defence of their title and Arsenal’s outstanding defensive record, few can ignore the unprecedented early-season success being had by the three newly promoted clubs.

Sunderland sit a remarkable fourth, Leeds a comfortable 15th, and Burnley a place behind them in a gritty 16th, a remarkable feat for sides automatically tipped to go straight back down upon securing their Premier League status for 2024/25. Moreover, all three won in the most recent round of Premier League fixtures, a feat that hasn’t been achieved since November 2020, in the midst of the COVID pandemic.

Currently, all three promoted sides are outside of the relegation zone 📈

The last three clubs to achieve this were Bournemouth, Fulham and Nottingham Forest in 2023 👏 pic.twitter.com/SmeOhNlqhM

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 29, 2025

However, we should have seen this coming - Leeds and Burnley both notched a century of points in the Championship last season, while Sunderland showed their strength of character and unwillingness to admit defeat on their way to play-off promotion glory.

But one thing all three sides have in common is their transfer business, with each outfit spending in excess of £100 million on players over the summer. This isn’t anything new: remember when Nottingham Forest spent just under £300 million within two seasons of promotion?

No, what surprised the Premier League was the remarkable effectiveness of the clubs' representatives in the market - they closed out high-value deals quickly, quietly and, on some occasions, for a fraction of the value that other clubs may have been forced to pay.

So, have Burnley, Leeds and Sunderland created a new blueprint to not only survive but thrive in the English top flight?

Top Transfers and Sage Spending

There is no doubt that to survive in the Premier League, heavy investment must be pumped into the squad, no more so than in their first season - some teams only get one chance, and it would be foolish to not give themselves a chance.

has there ever been a time where none of the promoted sides went back down and none of the relegated sides went back up in the same season? https://t.co/s3PY0Be9TW

— tom (@ytfctxm) October 31, 2025

Sunderland recognised this immediately - while last season’s squad did manage to earn promotion via the play-offs, the 24-point gap between the Black Cats and their two fellow promotees had to be addressed, and if they didn’t revamp the squad, the gap would only grow wider.

They only sold £44 million worth of players - promotion money lends you valuable spending power in your first transfer window - but they were extremely thorough in their incomings, bringing in 15 new arrivals with the combined cost of £165 million.

Sunderland brought in 15 new players over the summer and somehow Regis Le Bris has got them playing like they've been together for years 👏🧠 pic.twitter.com/lljTw2U3oy

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 26, 2025

Again, similar to Forest, this surprised very few. However, what did catch almost everyone of guard was the sheer quality of Sunderland’s transfer business. They were not simply bringing in middling players in the twilight of their careers, but were drawing recognisable names from all over Europe, some even from title-winning teams.

Ex-Bayer Leverkusen invincible Granit Xhaka (£13 million) is already a shoo-in for the signing of the season argument, former PSG talent Nordi Mukiele (£10.5 million) has already shown why he was so highly rated by France’s most celebrated club in abundance, and the arrivals of other top five league talents in Omar Alderete, Enzo Le Fee, Habib Diarra and Simon Adingra forced everyone to sit up and take notice.

Leeds pulled off an equally admirable transfer window - with their highest individual fee sitting at a mere £17.6 million, the Whites still managed to grab AC Milan striker Noah Okafor, former Ligue 1 winner Gabriel Gudmundsson, 50-goal Premier League forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and TSG Hoffenheim’s Anton Stach, all of whom have played a big part in their early season success.

Based on these transfers only rate the window out of 10 pic.twitter.com/5rQZGSKw6I

— All Leeds TV (@AllLeedsTV) September 2, 2025

Though Burnley’s summer transfer window was slightly more low-key, with the Clarets spending a large chunk on making deals for last season’s loanees permanent, Chelsea pair Armando Broja and Lesley Ugochukwu, Man City’s Kyle Walker, and continental players Loum Tchouana, Quilindschy Hartmann, and Florentino Luis saw valuable extra firepower arrive at Turf Moor.

In terms of quality, it is arguably the best summer transfer window ever for the three new kids on the block, with savvy spending meeting painstaking recruitment and scouting processes. I’m telling you, go on Transfermarkt and find each club’s transfer dealings from the summer, and you will suddenly become a lot less surprised at how competitive all three clubs have been.

However, there has been one notable change to the promoted side's transfer approach, and it is their apparent lack of interest in the league they earned promotion from.

Where Are The Championship Players?

In seasons gone by, we have seen promoted clubs immediately dip back into England’s second tier in order to pluck the choicest players from the world’s most competitive division.

While this at times can prove to be an immensely effective strategy - the likes of Ebere Eze, Jude Bellingham and Jamie Vardy all first earned plaudits while plying their trade in the Championship. It is a ploy that has failed to reap rewards for recently promoted and subsequently relegated teams.

Last season, Ipswich brought in seven Championship players, Southampton acquired three, and while Leicester didn’t bring in any, their lack of high-quality acquisitions saw them almost wishing they had.

This campaign, only Burnley have signed more than one, with these being a permanent deal for Millwall loanee Zian Flemming and for Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe. Leeds only brought in a single second-tier signing in Leicester’s James Justin, and Sunderland exclusively signed players from top-flight leagues, no mean feat for a promoted side.

Sunderland since being promoted from the Championship:

📈 Picked up more points than the likes of Chelsea, Man United, Newcastle and Aston Villa
🏟️ Won 3/4 games at Stadium of Light
🔵 Beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge pic.twitter.com/NgMGsXreNs

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 25, 2025

The combined number of Championship moves made by the three new sides totalled a measly three, a stark contrast to last season's total of 10. Of course, Championship players operate at an extremely high level, and many of them do end up in the Premier League at some stage of their careers.

But the entire purpose of having an in-depth, statistically driven recruitment process is to sign players that are ready for the big time now, not later. Sunderland, Leeds and Burnley showed a great understanding of prioritising top-flight-ready players over the summer, and the only Championship signings were players who either already had top-flight experience or, in Zian Flemming’s case, impressed their loaning club to such an extent that they couldn’t afford to let them leave.

Even for established Premier League clubs, EFL signings don't always pan out the way they were intended. Crysencio Summerville has had next to no impact since arriving at West Ham, while Chelsea's Lima Delap is yet to score his first domestic goal for the club since leaving Ipswich. In the place of what in seasons would have been numerous Championship-level talents, the promoted clubs targeted unsung prospects from all corners of Europe.

🎯 Noah Okafor's strike against Tottenham was our 800th @PremierLeague goal pic.twitter.com/Y8LxsFXAIX

— Leeds United (@LUFC) October 4, 2025

On the other hand, the promoted sides continental moves have been nothing short of genius.

Sunderland’s moves for NEC Nijmegen’s Robin Roefs and Union Saint Gilloise’s Noah Sadiki have been nothing short of masterstrokes, Burnley’s Tchouana (Lazio) and Hartmann (Feyenoord) have both made positive impacts, and Stach (Hoffenheim), Sebastiaan Bornauw (Wolfsburg), Okafor (Milan) and Jaka Bijol (Udinese) have all shown exactly why they were playing at the highest possible level in their respective nations.

Final Whistle

It has been clear over the last couple of seasons that something needed to change. With all of the last six promoted clubs returning to the Championship the season after, people were starting to question if the Championship should be given extra investment as a way of evening the playing field.

However, the class of 2025/26 has made a mockery of that - and all they did was show that in previous years, their cohorts had got their transfer strategy all wrong. Due to their status as a new Premier League club, these sides were able to bargain down the price of world-class talents to mere pennies, and as a result, have made the Premier League a more competitive, more interesting, and more unpredictable place.

Moreover, they have shown that promoted clubs do not need to rely on Championship players in a bid to secure safety. The right deals are out there, and while they take time and investment to find, Sunderland, Leeds and Burnley are proving that the time and money spent are more than worth it.

Now, all three outfits are reaping the rewards of their diligent summer scouting processes, and while there is a lot of football left to be played, you get the feeling that this season there won’t be the annual discussion of why the gap between the Championship and the Premier League is bigger than ever.