A sense of deja vu for Cats boss?

Mar 7 2010 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

IT may just be with me being a lanky Cockney streak of wee, but Sunderland are looking seriously short right now.

Short on confidence, if you’re being charitable. Short on bottle, if you’re being honest. Short, perhaps most crucially, on numbers.

And, no, none of that is a dig at Sunderland’s owner, although Ellis Short’s silence has never seemed more deafening.

No, the truth is that while the Black Cats’ biggest problem remains the rank cowardice of some of their biggest “stars”, their manager must accept the consequences of his own recklessness.

Some may have seen Steve Bruce’s dogged refusal to deviate from a set shortlist of January transfer targets as brave.

Now, it appears simply foolhardy.

Too long spent on Plan A options, like Maynor Figueroa and Kevin Kuranyi, left too little time to formulate a proper Plan B.

The result? Having to stick by players lacking the will or the way – or both – to get out of trouble. So, for all the doubts there are against, say, Kenwyne Jones, a bigger question is begged: Who else is there?

Bruce, although his injury list is now brief, can have damningly few persuasive answers.

Equally worrying is the sense of deja vu – and, in turn, fatalism – surrounding his side’s slump.

Would that recent weeks had stirred echoes of former Wearside woes like the latter days of Peter Reid, the gloom of the (mercifully brief) Howard Wilkinson era and misery under Mick McCarthy in 2005/06.

But Sunderland’s situation has obvious and ever-more ominous parallels with Newcastle’s slide into the Championship a year ago.

Initially unlikely but ultimately inexorable, United’s fall was hastened by the under-performance of their supposed superstars, several panic signings and their squad’s lack of depth.

In short, they were all fur coat and no knickers.

Sadly for Sunderland, Kieran Richardson could be this year’s Damien Duff. For Michael Owen, you could read Jones. For Obafemi Martins? Fraizer Campbell.

And for, say, David Edgar, see David Meyler.

Having aped Newcastle by failing to strengthen significantly in the January transfer window, the one thing Sunderland have going for them that the Magpies didn’t is a consistent goalscorer – in Darren Bent.

But the Premier League table shows little or no difference between the sides. And the table rarely tells lies.

After 27 games last season, Newcastle lay 15th with 27 points and a goal difference of minus 10. Sunderland are 14th, but with the one point less than their North East rivals and more goals against.

Sunderland have scored just 19 goals at home in 13 games – as had Newcastle at the same point.

Newcastle had Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham and Aston Villa still to play, as do Sunderland now.

A final-day trip to the West Midlands beckons for the Black Cats, just as it did for Newcastle.

And, exactly as with their neighbours in 2009, Sunderland’s most likely saving grace appears to be the failings of the teams below them in the table.

And that, all things considered, is a disgrace in itself.

For what it’s worth, I think Sunderland will survive, if only because there look to be worse teams in the Premier League.

For what it’s worth, I said exactly the same about Newcastle a year ago.