Sunderland have been transformed since the arrival of Tony Mowbray, as the Englishman stamped a clear mark of progression in his first term as manager.
The former Blackburn manager took the squad he inherited and in their first season back in the Championship, led them into the play-offs.
While a defeat to Luton Town in the semi-finals would derail any dreams of recording back-to-back promotions, the Black Cats are purring once more, comfortably sitting in the top six after nine matches played.
It's not always been plain sailing for the North East side, consecutive relegations saw them drop to the third tier in 2018, spending four miserable campaigns in the doldrums of League One.
During the period in which Sunderland dropped like a stone, reckless decision-making in the transfer window was the key factor to their downfall, especially in the summer of 2016 as poor recruitment by David Moyes was decisive in their relegation.
The Scot brought in the likes of Papy Djilobodji, Darron Gibson, Steven Pienaar and Paddy McNair, but by far the worst of the lot was the acquisition of record-signing Didier Ndong.
How much did Didier Ndong cost Sunderland?
During his year stint at Lorient, Didier Ndong rose to prominence as one of the most sought-after midfielders in the league, featuring in all but four of his side's 38 matches in Ligue 1.
Following his club record £13.6m arrival, the Gabon international said: "Maybe the Sunderland fans don't know me yet, but I promise they will quickly discover that I will give everything for them and the club", which couldn't be further from reality.
As per Capology, Sunderland paid Ndong £30k-per-week to keep him at the club, amounting to a total of £1.5m in wages for the year he was on the payroll at the Stadium of Light.
What's more alarming is when you look at how the wage expenditure was spread across the entire squad. There were 13 other players earning more than the Gabonese in the 2016/17 season, including Jermaine Defoe on £80k per week, Fabio Borini on £60k, Lee Cattermole on £50k and John O'Shea on £47k.
Jermain Defoe
£80k-per-week
Fabio Borini
£60k-per-week
Adnan Januzaj
£60k-per-week
Patrick van Aanholt
£55k-per-week
Lee Cattermole
£50k-per-week
Sunderland would suffer a damning relegation to the second tier with a squad of underperforming high earners, and Ndong was one of several who disappointed having crumbled under the weight of his hefty price tag.
How many games did Didier Ndong play for Sunderland?
Having fended off a whole host of clubs across the continent to land the up-and-coming star, Sunderland expected him to be the combative and energetic midfielder capable of dragging them to safety, but that was a seemingly impossible task.
The Black Cats ended up spending all but two weeks of the season in the Premier League's relegation zone, ending the campaign in last place and although Ndong made 31 appearances in that term, to say he underwhelmed would be an understatement.
Reflecting on his time in England in 2019, the 29-year-old summed up it up perfectly, stating "I lacked professionalism", and that was a true indictment of his performances as he failed to help Sunderland in their quest to bounce straight back to the big time.
Expected to be levels ahead of his positional peers at Championship level, Ndong rarely showed any glimpse of repaying the money that was shelled out on him as he made 18 appearances in the first half of the campaign before engineering a loan move to Watford.
If Sunderland supporters hadn't already been put through the mill enough, especially after a gut-wrenching relegation to League One in 2018, Ndong found a way to rile up the fanbase even further.
He failed to turn up to training in July of that year, posted pictures on social media of him on a luxurious trip to Morocco and was subsequently sacked by the club after breaching his contract by going missing in the months that followed.
Ndong eventually agreed to pay back £3.5m in compensation once he found a new club, which proved to be Guingamp with the 5 foot 10 dud going down as FourFourTwo's worst-record signing in Premier League history.