I do also think inevitably its an exaggeration.
For example I wouldn't be surprised if we "reached out" to Piggot's agent just to understand what he was looking for etc. If he says £8k p/w that might have ended it there and then. But he can then tell people Sunderland are interested etc.
Not saying that happened. But its very clear we will be going in for players that aren't first choice etc, in case those first choice targets don't come off. There will be loads of players we "go in for" that we won't get, and each one of those could "argue" that Sunderland were "beaten" to the signing, when we might not be fussed at at all.
You then also have the liars that just use us to pump up wages etc, or journalists knowing click bait stories about Sunderland will get more hits than ones about Lincoln as we have more fans etc.
So with those things combined, it actually becomes a surprise when you see signings happening at our level that DON'T reference us