Sunderland will be ‘lucky’ to collect over £10-12m in total income this season. 

That’s according to football finance expert Kieran Maguire, who recently spoke to ChronicleLive, where he shared his projection on Sunderland’s income for the current financial year. 

A big drop-off for Sunderland

This highlights the extent of how badly the ongoing global pandemic has harmed the North East club’s finances. 

As explained by Maguire, the Black Cats collected £59m in total income back in the 2018/19 campaign - the last season that Sunderland managed to enjoy without being impacted by the pandemic, with the 2019/20 League One season concluding prematurely. 

Now, with fans unable to attend games, it seems like they are set to take in up to £49m less than that, per Maguire, which represents an almost 80% decrease in revenue. 

Transfer Tavern take

This is a mightily significant drop-off in Sunderland’s revenue as a result of the pandemic. So, perhaps it would be fair to say that this sheds some light on the importance of the North East club receiving a financial injection in the form of Kyril Louis-Dreyfus’ takeover, to boost their hopes of returning to the heights of England’s top-flight. 

Per ChronicleLive, Maguire certainly believes that this is the case and so, perhaps that gives Black Cats fans even more reason to count down the days to this impending takeover, which just has the EFL’s Owners’ and Directors’ Test to pass at this stage.

In other news, some Sunderland fans were fuming over Elliot Embleton's performance versus AFC Wimbledon.