The Premiership’s bottom club are struggling big style, and have little chance of avoiding the drop, but when it looked as though things couldn’t get any worse, they did yesterday as they went out of the FA Cup at Brentford.
It was no fluke result, they were outplayed by the League One club and now the manager Mick McCarthy is being questioned. He’s not had an easy job up on Wearside, having to rebuild the squad after relegation in 2003, but their return to the Premiership two years on has been more traumatic than their last relegation season.
Some supporters are at the end of their tether with the manager, and it would come as no surprise should McCarthy be replaced in the near future. And one of the names being mentioned as a replacement is that of Stan Ternent, a Mackem by birth.
I’m not sure what would be expected of any manager going in there just now, should McCarthy leave, but has Stan’s chance of managing in the Premiership finally arrived?