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Sunderland in a mess yet again in the Premier League

David Nugent in Editorial, English Premier League 22 Jan 2017

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Sunderland have sunk to the bottom of the table under David Moyes

Sunderland are in a relegation dogfight yet again. The Black Cats are like a moth to a flame when it comes to dicing with Premier League death. Fortunately, the Black Cats have had luck on their side in the past.

Apparently, even their boss thinks the north east side are doomed this season. A 2-0 defeat at West Brom on Saturday did not come as a major shock.

In fact, most people expected a comfortable victory for the Baggies at the Hawthorns. It is now looking like a bleak picture at Sunderland.

Bin dipping for transfers

Sunderland boss David Moyes recently talked about the clubs position in respect to transfers. Talking prior to the trip to West Brom he told the media: “I’d be kidding you on if I said the players we’re hoping to bring in this month are going to make a big difference because, first of all, we probably couldn’t get that level of player and, secondly, we probably wouldn’t have the finances to do that,”

He continued by saying: “To suggest that a player we might bring in would be making a big difference would not be correct.”

Moyes became accustomed to shopping in the bargain basement with Everton for over a decade. However, it seems he is now bin dipping for players, illustrated by the fact veteran defender Joleon Lescott is training with the Black Cats.

Lescott is 34 and a free agent after Greek side terminated his contract in November. If that is the market Sunderland are shopping in they might as well just give up now. Moyes has already had to bring in the likes of Steven Pienaar and Victor Anichebe just to strengthen the numbers in his squad.

The Scot may have been very negative in recent times, but looking at Sunderland’s current plight it is no major surprise.

Ellis Short wants out

When US businessman Ellis Short bought into Sunderland, no doubt he was looking at the club as an investment. Very rarely are football clubs a good place to put your money. If you buy a club as a hobby horse like Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and do not expect profits it’s far more enjoyable.

It seems that Short has all but abandoned the club and is obviously board of his very expensive business investment. Moyes had very funds to spend in the summer when the team was desperately in need of an injection of numbers and quality.

Back in November, it was plastered all over the media that Short was looking to sell the club. According to the Daily Telegraph, he even had a brochure produced to illustrate the benefits of the club.

The fact that Short is attempting to sell the club will come as no surprise, considering the current situation. The club reportedly has a major debt and you get the feeling that the Sunderland owner cannot wait to get rid of the club from his portfolio.

Maybe this should be a lesson to any businessman that thinks he can make money from an English club that is not Manchester United. Sunderland have just lurched from one crisis to another in recent years. Short would have to take a fair share of the blame.

Moyes the favourite to be sacked

We are at that time of the season when Sunderland sack their boss and bring in a new man to save to save them from the drop. It is a tried and tested method on Wearside now. It seems to have worked pretty well over the years.

At one point David Moyes was once a good football manager. He has lost his way in the last couple of years. The Scot is now the favourite to be the next boss Premier League boss to be sacked at odds of 15/8.

With Sunderland bottom of the table, it is hard to argue that the Scot deserves to keep his job. However, there is an argument that he has been given very little financial assistance at the club. His signings have not been great, but they could not have expected to be.

Moyes has had to cut his cloth accordingly and sign the only players he could. He has had to sign other clubs cast-offs and it is a formula that was always doomed to failure.

Whether a new boss could do any better than Moyes with the current group remains open to argument. However, on paper and on the football pitch the current Sunderland team are very weak.

Maybe the Black Cats have had their nine lives. Maybe this will be the season that the club from the north east are finally relegated to the Championship, which would be a massive shame for their highly loyal supporters.

Who is responsible for the mess at Sunderland?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Nugent


David is a freelance football writer with nearly a decade of experience writing about the beautiful game. The experienced writer has written for over a dozen websites and also an international soccer magazine offline.
Arguably his best work has come as an editorial writer for Soccernews, sharing his good, bad and ugly opinions on the world’s favourite sport. During David’s writing career he has written editorials, betting previews, match previews, banter, news and opinion pieces.

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