On the one hand I'm disappointed as I liked Jack Ross and really wanted him to succeed. He comes across as a intelligent, articulate and genuinely nice bloke and I'd have liked him to develop Sunderland for a few years. That said, I'm not surprised this has happened.
There is a huge level of expectation. There is far too much unjustified arrogance in the fanbase, and the board stoke that. The owner Stewart Donald went on a podcast and started bleating about wanting 100 point seasons before we'd kicked a ball for crying out loud.
Mind you, there should be
some degree of arrogance - by that I mean the club absolutely should be planning to try for promotion. With the resources they have for the division, there's no reason not to aspire to that.
So the thing is then, how long do you back something that you don't think is working and doesn't look like it can deliver on that expectation? They might be sixth but frankly they are lucky to be sixth. Sunderland have gone backwards since last season - in fact since the checkatrade trophy final they've been quite poor. As Mini E has alluded to, where we have won games we haven't tended to play well, we've just been dug out of holes with individual moments of skill from the likes of Aiden McGeady or Chris Maguire. It's well documented we draw a lot, and towards the end of last season we've started losing games - with a whimper - too regularly. Southend, Coventry and Fleetwood last season, Peterborough and Lincoln this.
I don't think it's fair to put everything on Ross - the summer recruitment was questionable and that lies with the recruitment team they have in place, Tony Coton and Richard Hill. They've improved at centre-half, but arguably regressed elsewhere. I think the one player that's caused the most issues though is Will Grigg. Now Ross identified him as his number one target to replace Maja in January and he hasn't gotten anything out of him. Part of that probably does fall down to the way Ross had us playing - lumping aimless long balls up over the top isn't going to get performances out of a striker like Grigg - so why ask to sign him then?
I hope they have an idea of a replacement in place though, and this isn't just a kneejerk reaction to the Lincoln game. We'll see soon enough I guess.