Sunderland head to Coventry live on Sky Sports Football on Saturday from midday.
Saturday 29 September 2018 13:28, UK
After back-to-back relegations, Sunderland have returned to winning ways and are pushing for the League One automatic promotion spots. Here, Dominic Hewitson takes a closer look at the turnaround…
In recent years Sunderland football club has gone through some of the darkest periods in its 139-year history on and off the pitch.
Things spiralled out of control for the six-time champions of England after they became stuck in a destructive cycle of manager changes, poor but expensive recruitment and a failure to learn from last-gasp escapes from Premier League relegation.
This depressing yearly process saw-off experienced and respected coaches in the game such as Dick Advocaat, Gus Poyet and David Moyes, and ultimately the latter took Sunderland into the Championship.
But not only were there poor on-field performances for Sunderland, there were also issues behind the scenes, alluded to by former head coach Gus Poyet. "It's hard to explain but there's a way of life, something deep down, that makes it difficult to fulfil its potential," said Poyet four years ago. "If I knew what it was I'd say but it's there and it needs to be dealt with at the root."
Relegation to the Championship could have been seen as a fresh start for the club, a chance to rebuild - but Sunderland, under Simon Grayson and then Chris Coleman, continued to slide and were relegated again.
The drop came amid a catalogue of calamities in the 2017/18 season, a campaign that saw the club's highest paid player refusing to play for the club, their top goal scorer scoring against them and then the club's relegation confirmed after a stoppage-time equaliser to Burton was ruled out for handball.
"One has to go back four or five years to map the decline," says BBC Newcastle commentator Nick Barnes, who has been covering Sunderland since 2003. "When the then owner Ellis Short decided he'd pumped enough money into the club and managers began to feel the pinch when it came to their budgets it became harder and harder to compete, thus the flirtation with relegation from the Premier League season after season.
"Inevitably they were relegated, but the rot was so deep and the confidence of the players so ravaged, relegation from the Championship began to look increasingly likely fairly early in the season.
"The club had been so profligate in terms of its intake of comparatively poor players for over the odds money that financial fair play also began to bite and that had an instantaneous impact in the Championship and still is to an extent in League One.
"Ultimately the club suffered mismanagement on a grand scale and they paid the price."
However, with every disaster there is an opportunity and this was seized upon by 43-year-old insurance businessman Stewart Donald.
After the club's second consecutive relegation, owner Ellis Short wrote off the club's debts and sold the club to Donald for £40m in May of this year. Since then Sunderland have never looked back.
St Mirren boss Jack Ross was appointed to replace Coleman and co-owner Charlie Methven sent out a strong message in a pre-season press conference that Sunderland were determined to transform their fortunes.
The new owners proved to be men of their word, as when Didier Ndong and Papy Djilobodji went AWOL in the summer they returned to find their contracts had been terminated.
"The mood has changed immeasurably. It's a totally different club," says Barnes on the post-Short era.
"It's sometimes hard to believe when one thinks back to the mood only four months ago, when many fans were swearing they wouldn't be coming back and the atmosphere at matches was torpid and to some extent toxic.
"Now there is a renewed belief that the club has embarked on new beginnings with a buoyant and refurbished Stadium of Light, fresh optimism, and an ambitious manager and owners."
One of the few positives in recent years has been Sunderland's flourishing academy, which was highlighted in the summer with England heroes and Academy of Light graduates Jordan Henderson and Jordan Pickford shining on the world stage.
It remains a productive production line and local lad George Honeyman was named captain at the start of the season, while Lynden Gooch and Josh Maja have got off to flying starts, leading the assists and goal scorer charts respectively.
Ross has not only blooded the young players, but he has also recruited some quality acquisitions for relatively low fees.
"Some signings have fared better than others but none could be deemed a failure," says Barnes.
"There have been some standouts such as Dylan McGeouch, albeit hit by injury early on, Max Power and Jack Baldwin for instance, but praise should also go to the homegrown Gooch and Maja who have both made excellent starts to the season."
Potentially the best signing of the summer may well be the manager, Ross. The PFA Scotland Manager of the Year has been likened to a young Sir Alex Ferguson after he took St Mirren from a relegation battle to the Scottish Premiership and he is endorsed by the likes of Brendan Rodgers.
"Jack Ross is already demonstrating a thoroughness when it comes to preparation and a willingness during matches to make changes when his plans aren't working," says Barnes.
"He is a student of the game and bids to leave no stone unturned when it comes to preparing his team and researching the opposition. He was highly regarded in Scotland and perhaps it's unfair he's been labelled early on as the next Alex Ferguson or Bill Shankly when as a character he is very far removed from both.
"The game has moved on and Ross is very much a manager of this generation. It is too early to say how good he is but the signs are positive and he is ambitious to do well in England so I wouldn't rule out Jack Ross becoming a name known well beyond the boundaries of League One."
Even after the past few years of anguish, the Sunderland faithful still follow the club in huge numbers. The Black Cats have averaged just over 30,000 supporters at the Stadium of Light this season, the 15th biggest average in the country.
There will be 5,000 fans travelling down to the West Midlands for Saturday's early kick-off against Coventry and owner Donald has promised he will be among them.
This is a club that after years of disparity are trying to reconnect with their fanbase. There is hope again on Wearside.
Don't miss the Sky Bet League One clash between Coventry and Sunderland, live on Sky Sports Football from 12pm on Saturday.
