Anyone who isn't a top 6 club has flirted with relegation one time or another. It was harder for these mid-table clubs to attract good managers, players, coaches and talent to join them, and even when they have spotted a gem it would be sold to a big club and they are back to where it begins. It is just the reality of football kicking their arses big time like and very soon to Crystal Palace, Southampton and West Ham
Unlike us, they couldn't afford to buy the best, and has no one to develop in their own clubs. Even a club like Southampton who has continuously churned out top players for the last 10 years and was so admired only a couple of seasons ago are themselves a favourite for relegation.
Worse for Sunderland, there is nothing attractive about their brand. It is in the city that isn't well connected, doesn't have a plush stadium that makes them attractive for potential buyers, have a small population and fan base, and most of all, they have never won anything as a typical 'plodding along club'. I don;t even know what to do with it even if it was handed over to me for free.
When you are repeatedly making the same mistakes like Sunderland does, you have to step back and make a change. Did they ever do that after the last time they got relegated? No. Did they like Southampton nurture a philosophy in terms of developing and recruiting players? No. Part of the reason why the wheels have come off at Southampton this year is a combination of increased ambition being dragged down by poor staff and player recruitment decisions. Southampton thought that a season in which they finished 8th as well as getting to a cup final that they should have won was beneath them, despite the fact they had selling Mané and Pelle (who combined had scored 22 out of their 59 league goals) and not bothering to replace either of them until January. They sacked Puel for being too boring and yet hired Pellegrino whose Alaves side were the definition of dull. They also thought that despite having a successful policy of flipping players in their mid-twenties that they had bought for cheap that it was too much to ask to continue selling to Liverpool, resulting in them holding onto a wantaway player in Van Dijk when they could have taken £75m and upgraded their anemic attack. Like Lyon a few years ago, clubs who veer from a successful recruitment philosophy, ultimately end up being burned in the long-run.
That said Sunderland did even have such a plan? No. There are certain patterns that these sides fall into: active participants in the managerial merry-go-round; not developing homegrown talent; having large gaps between older and younger players; relying too much on younger players; repeatedly flirting with relegation, but not solving key issues. Sunderland fell into all of them.
Nine permanent managers in a decade; seven in the last seven years they were in the PL (Keane, Sbragia, Bruce, O'Neill, Di Canio, Poyet, Advocaat, Allardyce, Moyes). In their last set of accounts prior to being relegated, they had the 4th biggest debt in the league outside of Man Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool. £7m in interest payments. 78% wage to turnover ratio, second lowest cash profit in the league. £33m in losses (only Chelsea and Villa made more). To update a post I did in October 2016 about their unsustainable approach to running a football club, let alone any business.
Sunderland in a nutshell:
Number of permanent managers between 2010/11 and 2016/17: 7
Number of Directors of Football between 2010/11 and 2016/17: 2
Number of Chief Executives between 2010/11 and 2016/17: 3
Number of seasons between 2010/11 and 2016/17 with 40 points or more: 2
Number of signings age 17 or older (loans and permanent) Sunderland made between 2010/11 and 2016/17: 91
2010/11 - 11
2011/12 - 14
2012/13 - 12
2013/14 - 19
2014/15 - 11
2015/16 - 14
2016/17 - 10
Approximate number of players they made a profit on between 2010/11 and 2016/17: 8
Kenwyne Jones - Paid £6m; sold for £8m
Martyn Waghorn - Free; sold for £3m
Darren Bent - Paid £10m rising to £16.5m; sold for £18m rising to £24m
Jordan Henderson - Free; sold for £16m
Simon Mignolet - Paid £2m; sold for £9m
James McLean - Paid £350,000; sold for £1.5m
Costel Pantilimon - Free; Sold for £500,000
Patrick van Aaanolt - £1.5m; Sold for £14m
Number of homegrown youth players, who played more than five PL games for Sunderland during this period: 3 (Henderson; Colback; Pickford)
Number of former Man Utd youth players, who played more than five PL games for Sunderland during this period: 8 (Welbeck; Richardson, Bardsley, Campbell, Brown, O'Shea, McNair, Love)
Sunderland should be a warning to the likes of Everton and West Ham that having a large stadium means fuck all if you have no stability, struggle to sell for a profit and recruit poorly. St. James' Park, the Stadium of Light and Villa Park are the 7th, 8th and 9th largest football stadiums in England respectively. All the clubs playing there have been relegated at some point within the last three years.
