Has there been a most cost-efficient signing in the Premier League era than Kevin Phillips to Sunderland?

The Southampton academy graduate arrived at the Stadium of Light after Peter Reid - Sunderland manager at the time - decided to part ways with £325k to bring the 24-year-old striker to Wearside.

Little did Reid know that this would probably be the best cash he'd spend throughout his managerial career.

The Hitchin-born goalscorer found the back of the net on 30 occasions in just 36 appearances following his first Premier League campaign as a Sunderland player in 1999/00, beating none other than Alan Shearer to the Golden Boot award.

Those 30 strikes were just a handful of the 63 goals he scored for the Wearsiders throughout his six years at the club, where he made a total of 146 appearances.

If you were to divide Phillips' £325k transfer fee by the amount of goals he scored, you'd make the eye-opening discovery that the ex-England international only cost £5.16k per goal, making him an unbelievably shrewd acquisition by Sunderland.

Using the Bank of England's inflation calculator, Phillips' transfer fee would be worth £595,964.11 in today's money, not taking into account Premier League TV money and other relevant influences. The prolific marksman eventually joined Southampton for £3.25m, meaning that Sunderland squeezed a huge amount of goals from their £325k signing before selling him for ten times that amount - it was a fantastic piece of business in every aspect. Reid must've gone into games as the calmest man in the stadium knowing Phillips was up top. The frontman won the European Golden Shoe after the goal-laden 1999/00 campaign, which also earned him the Premier League Player of the Year award as well.

From green pitch to silver screen: What productions did these famous footballers star in?

The Englishman went on to net 189 goals across his career, but the 63 of those he netted for Sunderland truly put his name up in lights - what a signing he was, and for nothing but peanuts too.

In other news, this two-minute video has got plenty of Sunderland fans talking on Twitter...