Sunderland are searching for their sixth manager in the space of four years as Dick Advocaat became the latest man to leave the hotseat at the Stadium of Light.
The 68-year-old resigned from his post on Sunday just eight games into the season where he had watched his side failed to register a victory in the Premier League.
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The Dutchman revealed that he made the decision to leave the club before their clash against West Ham United, but continued until the end of the match, which saw the Black Cats allow a two-goal lead to slip to draw 2-2 against Slaven Bilic's men.
Advocaat leaves the club in 19th place in the table, just above bitter rivals Newcastle United, after admitting that he did not have the fight in him for a lengthy battle against relegation.
Sunderland chairman Ellis Short will now be searching for his eighth permanent manager since he took control of the club in 2008.
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The American faces a huge challenge on his hands as reports suggest that sporting director Lee Congerton will be following Advocaat out of the Stadium of Light, due to his frustration with a lack of funds for transfer over the summer.
The departure of Congerton will leave the Black Cats without an experienced football presence in their boardroom, which could hinder their search for Advocaat's successor especially given the turnover of managers on Wearside over the past few seasons.
Sunderland have not had a manager see out an entire campaign since the 2010-11 season when Steve Bruce guided them to a 10th-place finish.
Short has shown increased readiness to part company with managers in a desperate bid to keep the club in the Premier League.
As a result, Sunderland have been living groundhog day for the past four seasons, where their manager has left the club following a poor start to the campaign and the new man has guided them to safety, only for the slump to begin again. It's a vicious cycle, which shows no sign of abating.
Many of the players have remained through the string of managers such as John O'Shea, Lee Cattermole, Sebastian Larsson, Adam Johnson and Steven Fletcher.
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Despite still holding down regular places in the team, the continued poor form may suggest that the fault lies with the playing staff rather than the host of managers that have travelled up to the North-East to try to galvanise the Black Cats.
Advocaat appeared to recognise the problems, as he told Studio Voetbal: "Our squad was simply not good enough. The club knew that we had to strengthen ourselves, but the chairman never told me how much we could spend."
Blame for Sunderland's situation must also lie with Short, who in his desperate attempt to keep the club in the top flight has sacrificed long-term goals.
The Black Cats suffered relegation in 1996-97 season under Peter Reid, but bounced back two years later and held down a Champions League place for the majority of the 1999-00 season before they ultimately finished seventh, which they repeated in the following campaign.
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However, they fizzled out under Reid as goals from Kevin Phillips dried up and Niall Quinn retired, and they've never threatened to break into Europe bar their run to League Cup final in 2014 and a good spell under Bruce in 2010.
Sunderland's share a similar situation with many clubs languishing in the bottom half of the table such as Aston Villa, Newcastle and West Bromwich Albion, where they are not quite good enough break into the upper echelons of the league and are not quite bad enough to be relegated.
The lack of a key objective has left the club in purgatory, with no real ambition or realistic chance to push up the table. This has also created a problem attracting top-quality players to the North East, which has been shared by Newcastle over the course of the summer.
Now Short faces a similar job hiring a manager, who has the unenviable task of trying to mount a survival mission at Sunderland for the fourth straight season, with a lack of resources and a squad that is a mishmash of signings from five different managers.
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Sam Allardyce headlines the names linked to the vacant post, which could be the best fit for the club for now. However, that may have been said for at least three of the past men to land at the hotseat at the Stadium of Light.
Short may have accept the idea of dropping into the Championship in order to develop a long-term plan that seems beyond the club's reach in the frenetic world of the Premier League.
Simon Sinclair
