How Do Sunderland, Leeds United, and Burnley’s Transfers Compare So Far?

The 2025/26 transfer window has been open for over a month and a half now, and the new Premier League teams are making the most of it. Sunderland, Leeds United, and Burnley have already spent over £200m on new signings in a bid to stay in the top flight.

With all three teams already in the top half of the Premier League for the amount spent this summer, it’s clear that they are all making a serious effort to avoid the drop. However, with all three promoted teams immediately being relegated in the last two seasons, do these signings make it remotely likely that any of them will stay up?

So, how do Sunderland, Leeds United, and Burnley compare for their transfers so far, and can they win the scramble against their fellow promotees to stay in the Premier League?

Sunderland AFC – Six arrivals, £100.8m spent

Buying £99.5m worth of players, Sunderland has spent by far the most money of all three promoted clubs so far. Aside from the ‘big six’ clubs, the usual suspects for extreme expenditure, Sunderland have spent the most in the league.

The biggest signing of the window so far has been Habib Diarra, who joined from Strasbourg for €31.5m (£27.4m). Diarra primarily plays as a central midfielder, often providing crucial interceptions before moving into strong transitional, progressive runs.

The Senegalese midfielder was on the radar of Leeds United, who had put in several bids but could not agree on a price with Strasbourg. Sunderland were willing to cough up the money necessary, much to the disappointment of many Leeds fans.

Diarra was signed as a replacement for Jobe Bellingham, who joined Dortmund for €30m at the start of the window, roughly the same price. With Diarra signing on a five-year contract, the PSR cost of the transfer (this year) is just roughly €6m.

Despite losing one of their star players, the Bellingham sale has certainly given Sunderland a lot of freedom to sign players at a high price. The total expenditure of over £100m is proof of this, with four of their six players signed so far costing over £15m.

It will be seen as reckless by numerous supporters; however, it is undoubtedly ambitious. Sunderland arguably starts from a much weaker position than Leeds and Burnley, having finished 24 points below the two. In addition, Burnley and Leeds still retain players who were with the club in the Premier League, only recently dropping from the top tier. Sunderland, however, were last in the Premier League in the 2016/17 season and would need to build on top of a squad signed mostly while they were in the Championship.

In addition to Habib Diarra, Sunderland have strengthened their central midfield positions with the signatures of Noah Sadiki and Enzo Le Fée, who was at Sunderland on loan for the latter half of last season. With all three central midfielders joining for over £60m, they will all be expected to be regular starters; however, it remains to be seen if they can gel together, complementing each other’s style of play, or just creating a disjointed midfield line.

In the attacking areas, Sunderland have signed Simon Adingra and Chemsdine Talbi for roughly £38.5m. In preseason, Adingra has been playing as a left-midfielder and Talbi on the right in a 4-5-1 formation, with both being given the freedom to get forward and support the striker during attacking moves.

Lastly, Reinildo Mandava has been secured on a free transfer to strengthen the club’s left-back position. Last season, Dennis Cirkin filled this role and was quite successful at doing so. Nevertheless, signing an experienced La Liga defender in a free transfer proved too tempting for Sunderland and will add a lot of depth to a defence which conceded 44 goals last season, the second most of any promoted team over the last five Championship seasons.

Leeds United – Six arrivals, £60.4m spent

Like Sunderland, Leeds United have signed six players so far this window. Unlike Sunderland, Leeds have spent just over £60m. Despite spending significantly less than Sunderland and slightly less than Burnley, the Whites are still tenth in the league when it comes to amount spent this window.

Leeds haven’t had any standout signings in terms of price tag, with all being equal or less than the price of four of Sunderland’s incoming players. A lot of this seems to have come down to having a clear plan in terms of identifying the player needed and some persistent haggling.

In terms of ability, the two most impressive signings for Leeds appear to be Jaka Bijol, who joined from Udinese, and Anton Stach, who joined from TSG Hoffenheim. Both players are physically massive, each standing at 6’4″, and have utilised their size for each of their respective sides.

Both players are incredibly safe when in possession of the ball and have the ability to put in a big tackle to begin a counter-attack. As a midfielder, Stach is expected to carry the ball much further up the pitch than Bijol; however, the former Udinese centre-back has not been opposed to moving forward when the opportunity arises.

In terms of progression, Stach has been most often compared to Declan Rice, with the two sharing similar passing styles and completion rates while also providing extremely solid defensive cover and consistently performing for their clubs. Where the two differ, however, is that Rice will often progress into the attacking third, whilst Stach tends to pass forward from the middle third when the opportunity arises.

The clear attribute that Leeds are searching for is physicality. As mentioned, both Stach and Bijol are 6’4″; however, all of their other signings are also tall players: Sebastiaan Bornauw is 6’3, Sean Longstaff is 6’2″, Lukas Nmecha is 6’1″, and Gabriel Gudmundsson is 5’11”, which is tall for a fullback.

When Leeds were last in the Premier League, and for much of their Championship tenure, they struggled to exploit set-pieces. This was slightly amended last season with a few corners and in-swinging free-kicks being headed in. However, this season, they seem to take that number to a new level with their giant signings.

Despite the added height, Leeds have lost two of their best set-piece takers following the end of Joe Rothwell and Manor Solomon’s loans at Elland Road. Currently, the primary set-piece takers would likely be Jack Harrison and Ilia Gruev. Harrison is disliked by most Leeds fans and will probably not be at the club for the new season. Ilia Gruev is mostly liked by Leeds fans, but was mostly a squad player in the Championship and will probably sit on the bench even more in the top-flight.

Leeds‘ signing roadmap has looked very well structured. Almost all defensive positions now have added depth, and two solid midfielders have been signed, Sean Longstaff adding over 150 Premier League appearances to Leeds’ midfield. While Sunderland started the transfer race extremely quickly, Leeds have now caught up and seem to be looking for attacking options on the wings and a striker.

Despite some very rational and impressive signings, many Leeds supporters are still frustrated at the lack of a new goalkeeper, with Karl Darlow and Illan Meslier starting preseason matches. Several replacements, including Vanja Milinković-Savić and Lucas Perri, have been linked, but nothing concrete has formed thus far.

Burnley – Ten arrivals, £64.3m spent

Despite signing ten players, Burnley fans seem to be less excited about their transfer window than the other two promoted clubs. Much of this seems to stem from the fact that Burnley were obliged to sign four players as soon as the window opened, followed by a plethora of quite low-cost signings, which all totted up to quite a large sum.

Last season, the loans of Jaidon Anthony, Zian Flemming, Marcus Edwards, and Bashir Humphreys were undoubtedly a success as all four players contributed to Burnley’s promotion. However, their loans came with an obligation to buy upon promotion, which cost the club £35m as soon as the window opened.

As mentioned, all four players were excellent when fit in the Championship, contributing to Burnley’s promotion. However, the most impressive of these players was probably left-back Bashir Humphreys, who suffered a season-ending injury in February yet is now Burnley’s second most expensive transfer this window.

The other three players all contributed to an attack, which took a while to take off in the Championship. Zian Flemming scored 12 goals, while Jaidon Anthony scored eight and assisted seven, and Marcus Edwards managed just one goal and one assist in his 14 league games since joining in January.

Until the latter end of the season, Burnley struggled to score more than two goals in a match; going on a run of 25 league games between August and January without scoring three. Of course, in the Premier League, this would be less notable; however, for a team that ended the season with 100 points, you would expect more thrashings against lower Championship opposition. Luckily, as the season came to a close, Burnley relied less on their defence to achieve stubborn victories, winning matches by a more considerable margin.

Perhaps with another preseason and the increased amount of space attackers tend to get in the Premier League, these three forwards will achieve more goals; however, last season proved that more attacking quality was required.

Luckily for Burnley supporters, the club have tried to remedy this with the signing of young winger, Loum Tchaouna from Lazio for £13.2m. I say tried, as Tchaouna is signed as a prospect, having started just six matches in the league last season, and scoring once in 24 appearances. Given his young age, the Frenchman could prove to be a great signing in a few seasons; however, it’s difficult to see whether he’ll make a big impression this season.

Despite having such a solid defence last season, many of Burnley’s new signings have come in the form of defenders. The most notable of these is Kyle Walker, potentially a Manchester City legend, who has been one of the best right-backs in Europe over the last decade.

Much of Kyle Walker’s ability came down to his stunning pace; however, in recent years, this has deteriorated quite significantly, and last season, it was clear that he often struggled to track back after losing possession in an attacking position.

Regardless of this, Walker will bring significant Premier League experience to Turf Moor, and it could be possible that Walker will come close to his former ability in a more defensive role than he is used to playing.