As the transfer window opened I was curious to see which areas of the team the club would focus on, as we faced our first season back in the Premier League. As it closed, I certainly wasn’t expecting that the answer would be ‘all of them, and more’!

The meticulous behind-the-scenes operation that is Sunderland’s recruitment team had obviously been beavering away while the rest of us basked in the reflected glory of Wembley in the May sunshine. That was to be expected – what was hardly anticipated was the scale or ambition of the recruitment programme that the club were about to embark upon.

Barely had the highly promising Noah Sadiki and Habib Diarra followed Enzo Le Fée through the door than we were being linked with players like Reinildo Mandava. Young players with a high ceiling whose value could soar was a natural progression of the model. Chemsdine Talbi and Simon Adingra were in the same mould. Reinildo on a free was precisely the kind of signing that could have been expected, bringing much needed experience to a youthful back line for no outlay.

But then links to Granit Xhaka emerged. Surely not! This was not a player who should be within the reach of a newly promoted team? Suddenly the model was evolving, with financial investment in proven top flight quality rather than just potential.

And so it continued – Roefs, Alderete, Masuaki, Mukiele. And even on deadline day with Geertruida, Brobby and Traore. Youthful promise has been mixed with battle hardened capability, players with international caps and experience in European competitions. The scale of financial investment has surpassed anything that even the most optimistic fan could have foreseen.

Is this really planning just to cling on to Premier League status this season? I am beginning to wonder if Kyril Louis Dreyfus, Kristjaan Speakman and Florent Ghisolfi might have an altogether more ambitious vision for our club than just survival in the coming months. Do they believe that we can surprise the established elite with whom we are now rubbing shoulders, surpass the very low expectations which have become the norm for teams arriving from the Championship in recent years, and join the cadre of teams challenging in the top half of the Premier League?

As we eclipse the investment made by previous newly promoted teams, it is clear that the club has no intention of just making up the numbers.

The structure of the club has developed to support an extended period of Premier League football. The arrival of Florent Ghisolfi has been accompanied by the strengthening of the back room staff to support Régis Le Bris. Luciano Vulcano and Isidre Ramon Madir both have impressive European coaching pedigrees, and Neil Cutler is a highly rated goalkeeping coach.

In the commercial heart of the club, David Bruce has overseen yet another top notch kit range from hummel. Michelin-starred lifelong Sunderland fan Tommy Banks has opened a premium dining experience venue in ‘Banks on the Wear’, and ‘The Founders’ offers another alternative for fans to enjoy the match in an upgraded setting. The commercial potential of one of the biggest football clubs in England is finally starting to be realised.

The heavy investment in the stadium facilities has not been carried out with a view to Sunderland being back in the Championship next season. Last season’s overhaul of the sound and lighting systems has been built upon – the concourses have had a long overdue facelift, the food and beverage offerings have been upgraded, and bars and food kiosks that have been closed for years have been reopened.

When all the elements of what has happened at Sunderland AFC this summer are set together, like huge pieces of an enormous jigsaw, the picture that emerges is mind blowing. It would be difficult for the ownership to come out and state, explicitly, that they are aiming to compete for a place in the top half of the Premier League. They would risk opening themselves up to ridicule if they did. Yet all the indications are that they have a greater target in mind than just survival.

KLD studied Sports and Business Management. Régis Le Bris can boast an equally impressive academic grounding in sport. Between them and those around them, is there an intent to create an ethos within the players and the whole club for this season – a mentality that we already belong in the Premier League?

That may be just the approach that is needed to break the cycle of newly promoted sides being relegated within 12 months. Perhaps the key to success for a newly promoted team is not to aim to survive but to target the cadre of teams just outside ‘the Big Six’? In that way, survival becomes a byproduct, a worst case scenario, rather than an ambition.

Maybe I am reading too much into the recruitment that has taken place, and the investment in the club infrastructure. Or perhaps we actually have a hierarchy who are now showing the scale of ambition that so many of us thought was no longer possible – not since the days when we were the ‘Bank of England’ club.

It has been so long since those in charge of the institution that is Sunderland AFC have aimed for the stars, that it would be easy to become carried away with what has happened this summer. Or perhaps not?