I’VE asked several people with a working knowledge of Sunderland what’s gone wrong at the club in recent years.
Their answers - on or off the record - were invariably nebulous. False expectations. Inherited problems. A bad atmosphere. Nobody could hang their hat on a definitive cause for the decade-long malaise.
Perhaps, though, the biggest clue came in this week’s classifieds, when new owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus advertised for a data scientist and a head of analysis.
Once, Sunderland’s fanbase and reputation guaranteed a degree of success. In the Championship, at least, they could spend th...