BY common consensus, this was the transfer window when football entered a financial world all of its own. Clearly, someone forget to tell Sunderland.

While Jose Mourinho was spending £75m on Romelu Lukaku, Simon Grayson was signing ten players for a combined total of £1.25m. And no, we haven’t put the decimal point in the wrong place.

Admittedly, the figure will rise slightly once loan payments and agents’ fees are factored in, but that’s still a staggeringly small total for what was effectively a complete overhaul of the Sunderland squad.

Grayson deserves huge credit for his work since taking over at the Stadium of Light earlier this summer, and while it can be argued that his failure to recruit a striker on Thursday leaves his squad short of attacking firepower, the Black Cats boss has successfully made the best of a hugely difficult situation.

Unlike his predecessor, David Moyes, he hasn’t moaned about the financial restrictions he has been working under or questioned the quality of the players he has been able to bring in. Yes, there have been frustrations along the way, and targets that have proved too expensive.

But despite the departure of more than a dozen senior players at the end of last season, not to mention the subsequent £30m sale of Jordan Pickford, Grayson has assembled a squad that should be capable of being competitive in the Championship.

Whether it can do any more than that remains to be seen, but the spectre of a complete meltdown has been avoided, and given the lack of resources made available by Ellis Short, that is no mean feat.

By signing ten players, Grayson has ensured sufficient squad depth to withstand the rigours of a Championship campaign. It has not simply been a case of quantity over quality though, and while the three players to arrive on Thursday night might all have been either free signings or loan deals, it is worth noting they were all moving from clubs in the top-flight.

Two (Jonny Williams and Marc Wilson) are full internationals, while the other (Callum McManaman) moved for £4.75m as recently as 2015. None can justifiably be described as cast-offs.

Williams was the most difficult player to sign, primarily because he was in Cardiff preparing for Wales’ crucial World Cup qualifier with Austria, which will take place this evening, when Sunderland put the call in for his services.

The Crystal Palace loanee had to ask permission from Wales boss Chris Coleman to travel to the North-East, and even then he only just made it to Wearside in time to complete a medical and sign the necessary paperwork to ratify the deal.

“It’s always a manic day on transfer-deadline day,” said Williams, who played for Wales at last summer’s European Championships. “We had training (on Thursday) morning. We’ve obviously got a big game coming up at the weekend, and it’s always important to be training before a game like that.

“The gaffer let me leave a little bit early to come and get this done, and it’s great to have the gaffer behind me, supporting me in this. I left in a car at half one, and managed to get here at half eight – so I made it in time in the end. I wasn’t looking forward to the journey back.”

Williams has grown accustomed to an itinerant lifestyle, having completed two loan spells at Ipswich Town and spent time at Nottingham Forest and MK Dons on a temporary basis.

His greatest moments in a club shirt came with his permanent employers, Crystal Palace, and he contributed to the Eagles winning promotion via the play-offs in 2013. Sunderland might currently be sitting in 19th position in the table, but he sees no reason why promotion should not be a viable ambition over the course of the next eight months.

“I managed to achieve something special at Palace and go up through the play-offs,” he said. “I’m hopeful I can do something similar here with Sunderland. I’m really to be excited playing week in, week out, and get back to my best.

“It’s a really exciting move to come here and work with the manager and the assistant, I’ve heard great things about them. I think they’ll get the best out of me and play me in positions where I can hurt the opposition.

“Getting a run of games is the most important thing, and putting in good performances for this club. It’s a massive club and it should be fighting for promotion – that’s what we want to do.”