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Sunderland's fans, players and caretaker are crying out for clarity after a manager search that has gone from bad to worse

The situation at Sunderland is bleak: Getty
The situation at Sunderland is bleak: Getty

There was a time not long ago when the appointment of a Sunderland manager came close to having smoke coming out of the Stadium of Light.

Back then, Sunderland changing manager was major news. It always caught the headlines, it usually kept the club up. Roy Keane, Martin O’Neill, Sam Allardyce, Dick Advocaat, Steve Bruce, Gus Poyet; no one could accuse the club of thinking small.

There were times when you could accuse the club of not thinking; when Paolo di Canio was given the reigns in 2013, the Durham Miners came and took their historical banners from the walls of the stadium, so appalled were they at the judgment.

Wearside became a managerial whirlpool. Fire them in and then fire them. Ellis Short, the club owner, went through ten managers in nine years. The transfer dealings were hectic, the influence of inadequate sporting directors catastrophic.

Sunderland spent more than a quarter of a billion pounds on footballers between 2008 and 2015.

It seems life a different lifetime.

Now there is an increasing sense of panic about staying out of the third tier of English football.

O'Neill declined the opportunity to take over at the Stadium of Light (Getty)
O'Neill declined the opportunity to take over at the Stadium of Light (Getty)

There was a desire to name a new manager before the club face Millwall at the Stadium of Light on Saturday. That failed. There was a desire to tempt Michael O’Neill from his post with Northern Ireland to take over. The job was his, but he declined.

Paul Heckingbottam and Aitor Karanka both had support at the start of the week. That has wained. Ally McCoist, a former Sunderland player and former Rangers manager, has publicly expressed his wish for the position, as has Dwight Yorke, who helped the club to promotion under Roy Keane.

There is the need for any potential manager to see Ellis Short and find his actual plans for the club. David Moyes repeatedly expressed his frustration that he did not know the club was about to be placed on the market or how much he would have to spend.

In the summer Simon Grayson was allowed to spend £1.25 million (net). He fitted the bill of Martin Bain, the chief executive and former board member at Rangers. Grayson knew the division and was prepared to work on a budget. He won one league game and lasted four months.

Grayson was let go after winning only one league game (Getty)
Grayson was let go after winning only one league game (Getty)

A poll in the Sunderland Echo this week showed that 80 per cent who took part agreed with the decision to sack him.

Chris Coleman is the latest name added to a the growing list of potential successors. It was said £750,000-a-year was on offer for the man to follow Grayson, but that might not be enough to tempt Coleman from Wales, to a club in serious trouble, haemorrhaging both support and hope.

Into the void has stepped Robbie Stockdale.

When di Canio was unveiled as the new manager of Sunderland at the entrance to the Academy of Light, you genuinely could not for the media scrummage. Di Canio and the club’s head of media fought off question after question from a packed room about the new man’s political leanings. The press room was packed.

Stockdale has been thrown into the breach (PA)
Stockdale has been thrown into the breach (PA)

On Friday there was a solitary written journalist and one from local television. It told you of a club slipping off the map.

“I’ve genuinely not got an awful lot to tell,” admitted Stockdale, the caretaker manager. “I spoke to Martin (Bain) early in the week and he asked me to hold the fort and carry on being the lead person in charge and take the game on Saturday. That’s all I asked him, I just wanted some clarity, for myself and the players.”

Clarity, and a vision. Sunderland cry out for both.