With the League One kick-off now just nine days away, the tension on Wearside is palpable.
Sunderland fans should be excited about returning to the Stadium of Light after a season of Covid-enforced absence, but instead the overwhelming emotions are frustration and anger at the lack of transfer activity.
While other clubs - including several expected to be among the promotion contenders - appear well advanced as they recruit and rebuild, the Black Cats are playing catch-up.
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They have added three quality players in midfielders Alex Pritchard and Corry Evans, and on-loan Manchester City defender Callum Doyle, but it is not nearly enough to offset those who have departed over the summer.
Seven players were released at the end of last season: loanees Jordan Jones and Dion Sanderson returned to their parent clubs, 31-goal top scorer Charlie Wyke turned down a new contract in favour of a switch to Wigan Athletic, and at present Denver Hume is out-of-contract and is stalling on signing a new deal.
Even if you take into account the return of Elliot Embleton and Will Grigg from their loan spells at Blackpool and MK Dons respectively, that still leaves Sunderland six men down.
And if reports that Bailey Wright could join the exodus prove correct, you can make that seven.
Whichever way you look at it, Sunderland's squad is significantly weaker today than it was on the final day of last season.
Full-backs apart, they have a decent first-choice starting XI, but precious little strength in depth.
When you bear in mind that last season's squad finished fourth, with injuries wreaking havoc in the final third of the campaign, the fact they are weaker now than then hardly bodes well for the future.
So it is entirely understandable that fans are worried.
They will not be the only ones.
Lee Johnson knows that his present pool of players is nowhere near strong enough to mount a promotion challenge.
And he also knows that his neck will be on the block if he does not deliver results.
Twice in pre-season he has been asked if he was comfortable with the way the window is progressing, and twice he has replied that it is giving him sleepless nights.
Johnson is the 18th permanent manager or head coach I have dealt with at Sunderland, and every single one of them has stressed the importance of getting transfer business completed early in the summer window to allow new players time to settle, and for them to spend the maximum possible time to work with new arrivals.
Yet, as Sunderland fans know all too well, it rarely (or, more accurately, never) works out that way.
The hope was that Kyril Louis-Dreyfus' takeover and Sunderland's switch to a sporting director/head coach structure, an overhauled recruitment department, and advance planning, would break that cycle this summer.
But no, Sunderland find themselves scrambling around once more.
After every one of Sunderland's pre-season friendlies Johnson has been asked about specific incomings, but he tends to answer in generalities.
Partly, that is because he is often being asked about players who are under contract elsewhere and is therefore reluctant to talk about individuals.
Sometimes it is because he is wary of raising hopes by saying a deal is close when it may yet fall through.
And often it is simply that the negotiations are being handled by sporting director Kristjaan Speakman.
Questions can be put to Johnson, and he does of course have input into the recruitment process, but in truth it is Speakman who is best placed to give the answers.
The problem is that, so far, Speakman's public utterances have been limited to 'big picture' interviews with the club's own media channels.
Eight months into his role, Speakman has yet to meet or be interviewed by independent, external, media.
It will happen - most likely after the transfer window has closed - but it has not happened yet.
In the meantime there is an information vacuum, and that is what is causing the fans' angst.
The stakes are high.
Sunderland were handed a relatively benign start to the season, on paper at least, but if they drop points in those early winnable fixtures, the mood will quickly turn sour.
If that happens, Sunderland's sluggish summer recruitment will be put under the microscope - the players who moved elsewhere, the lack of players in place for the start of the season, the limited time that Johnson has had to work with them.
And the finger-pointing will begin.
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