WALKING out of the Stadium of Light on Saturday, I was part of a group of journalists that was approached by a frustrated Sunderland fan.

“I’ll tell you the biggest mistake this club made,” he said. “Getting rid of Paolo Di Canio. He’s the only one to have seen through all this rubbish. We might have been relegated if he’d stayed in charge, but at least we’d have had a massive clear out and been able to start again.”

My initial reaction was to laugh off his comments. Di Canio’s unique take on man management was a disaster waiting to happen from the outset, his tactical naivety became increasingly apparent throughout his reign and his partnership with Italian director of football Roberto De Fanti resulted in some of the worst signings made at the Stadium of Light in the last few decades.

Sunderland were right to dismiss him, and for all that the current situation feels critical, it is chastening to imagine what position the club might be in had Di Canio remained in charge.

And yet...

For all that he got wrong, the one thing Di Canio did successfully identify was that a core group of players had been a constant factor in Sunderland’s troubles. Two years on, and they still are.

From John O’Shea and Wes Brown in defence, through to Lee Cattermole, Seb Larsson and Adam Johnson in midfield and on to Steven Fletcher and Danny Graham in attack, a sizeable portion of the Sunderland squad has been involved in each of the last three seasons’ relegation battles.

Phil Bardsley left after Di Canio ostracised him, and Connor Wickham departed to join Crystal Palace earlier this month, but at least seven senior players who were part of the group bequeathed to Di Canio still remain an integral part of the set-up.

That is not to say that they are a bad influence, or even that they are primarily responsible for the dreadful start to the season that sees Sunderland rooted to the foot of the league.

But given that they have spent the last three years locked in a relegation battle, why should anyone be surprised if they find themselves battling against the drop again this season?

Instead of focusing on who is going to arrive this month, perhaps the Sunderland board should be focusing much more closely on who should leave.

Moving players on is easier said than done, especially when they have been given lucrative contracts that mean Sunderland’s wage bill is higher than that at most of the other clubs that are expected to be involved in the relegation battle.

Yet O’Shea, Brown, Larsson and Cattermole have all been awarded new contracts in the last 18 months when their departure might have made it easier to bring in new faces.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Di Canio had a lot of hugely significant faults. But at least he had grasped that.