You would have been laughed at for predicting that Sunderland would secure European football in their first season back in the Premier League last summer.

Well, no one is laughing now. The Black Cats beat Chelsea 2-1 at the Stadium of Light on the final day of the campaign to finish seventh in the division.

Europa League football will be coming to Wearside in the 2026/27 campaign, whilst local rivals Newcastle United failed to qualify for any European competitions.

The Black Cats won promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs last term, which meant that they did not have as much time to prepare as Leeds and Burnley, and never looked in danger of being relegated.

They started the campaign with the main aim being to avoid being instantly relegated back to the Championship, and they ended up competing at the other end of the table.

Newly-promoted teams can get sucked into thinking that they need to recruit with a possible relegation in mind by signing a bunch of young project players who could deliver in the top-flight, but would also be ready for another Championship season.

Or teams decide to sign, with all due respect, players who are way past their best, but had experience earlier in their careers and were once considered Premier League level, thinking that their experience would be enough.

What Sunderland did, though, was sign experienced, proven, players who had played in major leagues, but were not past their peak and unable to deliver quality displays.

Granit Xhaka, Nordi Mukiele, and Omar Alderete, for example, all fit into that as players who came from major European leagues and slotted straight into the side as consistent stars for Regis Le Bris.

That is how Sunderland turned an expected relegation battle into qualifying for the Europa League, because they did not recruit in the typical way that a promoted team recruits, and it helped them enormously.

Sunderland have unearthed their new Jermain Defoe

In the club's last stint in the top-flight, they hit the jackpot with the signing of Jermain Defoe, who scored 37 goals in 100 appearances as an experienced, yet still quality, Premier League star.

He dragged the club to survival in the 2015/16 campaign with his superb quality at the top end of the pitch, scoring 15 goals in 33 appearances in the division.

Now, Enzo Le Fee is looking like Sunderland's new version of Defoe as a player who was brought in with experience, but quality, and has dragged the team forward at times with his fantastic performances.

The French star was a monster against Chelsea on the final day, creating the most 'big chances' on the pitch, with the constant threat that he provides with the ball at his feet.

Le Fee, who was signed for £19.3m from Roma last summer after an initial loan spell, has become the new Defoe figure at the Stadium of Light because he is the player who delivers in the final third more often than not.

The 26-year-old star, who arrived with experience in Ligue 1 and the Serie A, ended the season as the only player in double figures for combined goals and assists (11) with five goals and six assists.

He also led the team for xA (5.96) and 'big chances' created (13) in the Premier League this season, which speaks to his importance to the team in the final third.

Le Fee was the standout performer for Sunderland in so many important metrics and was one of the key figures in their rise to qualifying for the Europa League, which is why he deserves so much credit.

Like Defoe in the 2015/16 campaign, albeit in different circumstances, the French star has carried the team on his back from an offensive standpoint, and has truly been a phenomenal signing for the club.

At the age of 26, he also still has plenty of years left ahead of him. Sunderland signed him at the perfect age, as he was not a young player with no experience or a veteran past his peak.

Le Fee, therefore, is the best example of how the club's recruitment team managed to create a side that competed for Europe, rather than a relegation scrap.