EVEN BY SUNDERLAND’S low standards, the Black Cats are enduring a miserable start to the season.
Saturday’s 4-1 home defeat to Arsenal means the club has made the worst-ever start to a Premier League campaign, with just two points from their opening 10 games.
Even the Derby County side from the 2007-08 season, who finished the season with a record low points tally of 11, had five points by this stage of their dismal campaign.
Something needs to change. And not necessarily David Moyes.
Former Sunderland winger Kevin Kilbane, speaking on Match of the Day 2 last night, is the latest person to question why the club has spent the last couple of seasons fliritng with relegation.
“It’s a tremendous club, the North East is such a hotbed of football. Everyone lives for the game. Particularly Sunderland, the way that they are, nobody has been able to get it right. I don’t know what it is.”
Changing managers has helped them avoid the drop, but none of them, for one reason or another, have been able to build on their initial success.
In the nine seasons since Roy Keane led the club to promotion from the Championship in 2007, Sunderland have only managed one top 10 finish – in 2011.
That season under Steve Bruce, coincided with Niall Quinn’s last full year as chairman and the last time Sunderland stayed with the same manager for an entire campaign.
Sunderland however, are spending a 10th consecutive season in the England’s top flight, their longest stay at the top of the footballing pyramid in nearly 50 years. But that hasn’t necessarily equated to success. The fans are disillusioned with the how club is being run and demoralised by the annual fight to avoid the drop.
Moyes is their ninth different permanent manager over this period. Their record shows the problems didn’t start when he arrived in the door.
In fact, after only his second match in charge, the 53-year-old had already sensed something was wrong at the club, suggesting another fight for survival was on the horizon after a 2-0 loss to rivals Middlesbrough at the Stadium of Light.
“I think it will be [a relegation battle], I don’t think you can hide the facts, that will be the case, yes.
“People will be flat because they are hoping that something is going to dramatically change – it can’t dramatically change, it can’t,” Moyes said.
Successive managers have attempted to piece together a squad they feel can move up the league, but the short-term approach from the board has left the club with a catalogue of castoffs from previous regimes. A mishmash of players has left the club with no identifiable style of play.
The motivation of certain players moving to Wearside has also been questioned, with players understood to be a paid a premium to attract them to move to the North East – an area deemed as one of the more unfashionable places to live in the UK.
But would Sunderland fans settle for another season of despair, followed by last-gasp survival?
Recent history shows that as long as their Premier League status is retained, a change of stragegy from the board is not going to come. Consequently, would relegation really be so bad?
Maybe they should look across at their neighbours and fiercest rivals Newcastle United to see how, if managed effectively, relegation can be used as force for change.
In the summer, their manager Rafael Benitez surprised many by signing a new three-year deal to remain at the helm of the Magpies, opting not to trigger his release clause to leave the club when they were relegated from the Premier League.
The key to the 56-year-old Spaniard taking the job was that he would have control of all footballing matters at the club, including transfers.
When Mike Ashley bought Newcastle in 2007, players have for the most part, only been purchased if the club could be in a position to make a profit further down the line.
Although that may sound like shrewd business sense, it often left the club taking risks on young, inexperienced players. For every Georginio Wijnaldum, there has been a Florian Thauvin and Henri Saivet. For every Aleksandar Mitrovic, there has been a Rémy Cabella and Emmanuel Rivière.
Ashley saw Newcastle as another vehicle to generate revenue, a business rather than a football club, with the measure of success confined to the bottom line rather than the trophy cabinet.
Fans of the North East club struggled with what they perceived as a lack of ambition from the board. The whole identity and vibrancy of the football club being solely eroded over the past decade. But Benitez is now trying to change the culture of the club, and so far they are reaping the rewards.
There were also some contentious sponsorship contracts too, such as the deal with payday loan company Wonga in which the club received £24 million over four years for being their main shirt sponsor, which further alienated the club’s supporters. The firm was accused of using football as a platform to attract fans into using the company known for its short-term deals coupled with high rates of interest. A deal that the fans unsuccessfully protested against.
But now there is a renewed sense of optimism around the football club. Sitting top of the table and winning matches helps, but Newcastle fans are once again enjoying watching their team rather than enduring their side going through the motions. As a club, they feel they are in a better position to climb the Premier League table, shoud they as expected, clinch promotion. Would Newcastle swap the position their club is in for that of Sunderland’s?
Relegation to the Championship could be a catalyst for change in the right direction for Sunderland. It could allow Moyes to fix the problems that have held the club back and rebuild as one of the strongest sides in the Championship, while getting the feel-good factor back at the club. Maybe the drop shouldn’t be dreaded after all.
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