Stoke City had a fine debut in the Premier League last season and finished ahead of the other promoted sides from the Championship a year earlier.
The Potters claimed 12th place, eight points adrift of seventh-placed Fulham who earned a passport to the Europa League.
Tony Pulis, in his second spell at Stoke, has done a great job in the top flight and succeeded in upsetting many an applecart even those of clubs in the top four.
Pulis returned in June 2006, replacing the sacked Johan Boskamp, who lasted only one year at Stoke. The manager's other spell at the Britannia Stadium was between 2002 and 2005 where he lifted City to the Championship.
Pulis's other clubs in his managerial career were Bournemouth (1992-1994), Gillingham (1995-1999), Bristol City (1999-2000), Portsmouth (2000) and Plymouth (2005-2006).
Pulis's best signing came in January, paying £3.5 million for James Beattie from Sheffield United. Beattie's exploits in the small box played a huge role in Stoke's survival.
In this pre-season, Pulis will be working hard on his players and their performances away from home.
An abysmal away record could have left Stoke among the relegated sides, chalking up a mere two wins and losing 13. Only Middlesbrough fared even worse when they were defeated on 15 occasions.
Liam Lawrence finished as 'man of the season'.
Roy Keane (now at Ipswich) quit the Stadium of Light at the start of December.
Ricky Sbragia took over on a caretaker basis, after forming part of the backroom staff. A fine stretch of positive results left Sbragia as the new boss of the Black Cats.
Sbragia, who had also worked at Manchester United and Bolton, resigned soon after Sunderland survived. Chairman Niall Quinn said the club were looking for a big name and weeks later appointed Steve Bruce, formerly of Wigan.
Bruce is at his third consecutive Premier League club after he spent six seasons at Birmingham and two at Wigan.
The Sunderland supporters went for Danny Collins as their 'man of the season'.
In the League Cup, Stoke City reached the quarter-finals but lost in front of their own fans, 0-1 to Derby County.
The season's disaster for Stoke came in the third round of the FA Cup, going down 0-2 to League One side Hartlepool, away.
Sunderland might not want to see the backs of Blackburn Rovers for a little while.
They knocked them out of both domestic competitions last season.
In the League Cup, Sunderland lost 1-2 at Ewood Park. This same venue proved to be Sunderland's burial place in the FA Cup, losing 1-2 (after extra time) in a fourth round replay.