Moyes Don't Cry

Sunderland’s latest manager struggled from the start at the Stadium of Light, and relegation to the Championship is evidence of the club’s more long-term problems.

- Dan Howdon

As Sam Allardyce danced on the Sta-dium of Light pitch after securing his side’s survival just over a year ago, it seemed like Sunderland might finally be able to escape an annual, almost cliched, struggle against relegation. A team that had looked utterly hopeless for the first half of the season had been transformed by Allardyce’s smart tactics and astute recruitment, with January signings of Lamine Koné, Jan Kirchhoff and Wahbi Khazri all playing a major part in an improbable late-season run of two defeats in 14 games. Seven weeks later, however, England’s defeat to Iceland set in train a series of events that would see Allardyce replaced with David Moyes and Sunderland shambolically relegated, yet again, by the following April.