Ex-Sunderland boss Gus Poyet has been speaking about the club’s progress in recent months.

Former Sunderland boss Gus Poyet has praised the club’s board for their “extraordinary” transfer strategy over the summer.

The Black Cats brought in 14 new signings in the aftermath of their long-awaited promotion back to the Premier League, spending in excess of £150 million in the process.

Based on their early showings in the top flight, it would appear that their bold recruitment drive has paid dividends too. At the time of writing, Regis Le Bris’ men have amassed 30 points from their opening 21 matches, and are currently just five points adrift of the top four.

And after watching his former club impose themselves on the transfer market in recent times, Poyet has admitted that he has been mightily impressed with the way that Sunderland have handled their business of late.

What did Gus Poyet say about Sunderland’s summer recruitment drive?

Speaking during an appearance on Sky Sports News, the popular Uruguayan said: “Well, great decision in the summer. I have to be honest. You know, I'm always honest and I try to say that, you know, the truth about different kinds of situation with the board - I think the board of Sunderland this summer, they made an extraordinary decision on which players they needed to bring.

“I think the coach has been very, very intelligent from the moment he arrived in England. I remember meeting him in his first preseason in Spain, speaking to him a little bit, even in French. And I felt at that time, ‘Oh, he's a little bit alone’. You know, that was my first reaction. But after he done a terrific job in the Championship, he adapted very well to the Premiership, changing many, many players, which is quite incredible. But I think overall the club now is very well run and the connection and the understanding with the coaches is fantastic. So I'm not surprised about how well they're doing.”

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What did Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus say about the club’s summer recruitment strategy?

For his part, Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has admitted that he and his recruitment team knew that they had to produce something special this summer if they were to give Le Bris and his squad a fighting chance of staying in the Premier League this term.

Speaking to Sky Sports back in November, he said: “I think the stats showed to us that unless you do something extraordinary you're likely going to go back to the Championship. For us, we didn't really set ourselves a budget in terms of the money we want to spend - we had an ambition to try and bring in the players we want and fortunately a lot of the deals we wanted to do we were able to conclude them, and as a result of that the spend in the end was big, but most importantly we got the players that we wanted.”

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