Scott Wilson Column: Martin Bain's change of tack at Sunderland is to be applauded

All too often, football clubs attempt to sugar-coat an unpleasant message or ignore a difficult situation in the hope that awkward questions will simply disappear. They won’t, so while supporters might not have enjoyed the content of Bain’s message, at least they can’t accuse the chief executive of keeping them in the dark in the manner of so many of his predecessors.

Unsurprisingly, the admission that January transfer funds will be “very limited” dominated the news agenda, along with Bain’s first public confirmation that Ellis Short is looking to sell. Neither comment was a huge surprise.

Anyone who has taken even a passing interest in Sunderland’s finances over the last three or four years will have sensed a situation that was getting out of hand. As debts soared to more than £140m, and the cost of annual interest payments rose accordingly, there was always a risk that Short would decide enough was enough.

That moment has arrived, although as Bain was keen to stress, Sunderland’s owner has pledged to continue funding the monthly shortfalls for as long as he remains in charge. If that tap is turned off, we really will reach a point of complete meltdown.

With the Premier League awash with television money, the obvious question to ask is how Sunderland have got themselves into this mess. Buried away in his interview, in an answer to a query about the off-field culture at the Stadium of Light, Bain delivered the clearest explanation yet.

“I really want to look at the football side of things here, and run it like a business,” said Bain. “There’s so much money involved that you really need policies and procedures, and there’s not a lot of that here at Sunderland.

“I would rather, with David (Moyes), set out a stall that says, ‘Okay, we might be shooting ourselves in the foot a bit here, but fundamentally to protect this institution, what policies need to be in place?’

“Does there need to be a monetary threshold when we’re trying to buy a player, or an age limitation of where we would buy? That would protect the football club going forward.

“What you’ve got to spend dictates what market you can fish in to a large extent, but if you have robust policies in place, you can say, ‘This is the market we’re in – let’s be the best in the market’.”

In other words, when Bain first took over from Margaret Byrne and asked his staff what the club’s overarching transfer policy was, he was met with a series of blank stares. No mission statement, no list of dos and don’ts, not even an outline idea of a trading model that might make financial sense.

Instead, Sunderland’s transfer policy for the vast majority of Short’s reign has been plucked out of thin air by a series of senior figures who were chronically underqualified for the position they had been promoted to.

That’s why of the 46 players that have signed for Sunderland since 2009, only three – Darren Bent, Simon Mignolet and James McClean – have been sold at a profit. It’s why Steven Fletcher and Danny Graham were signed for a combined sum of £17m, with a further £8m-or-so having been spent on their wages, only for both players to be released for nothing last summer. And it’s why the Black Cats could yet end up spending €10m on Ricky Alvarez, a player whose loan deal was such a mess that it is currently the subject of a hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Sunderland’s transfer record under Short is a horror show, and for all that he should be applauded for putting his own money into the club, the Irish-American businessman has to take responsibility for some terrible appointments and a complete failure to enact any kind of executive oversight.

A hotchpotch assortment of managers, directors of football, sporting directors and chief executives have been given carte blanche to sign players and negotiate contracts, often veering off in completely different directions from one regime to the next. The fact that so many have been jettisoned after a year or so, with the subsequent need for a series of hefty pay-offs, has exacerbated the problem.

Bain appreciates that cannot continue, and while the desire for a short-term injection of funds in January is understandable, the Scotsman is right when he says a radical change of direction is required.

Ending the era of ‘sticking-plaster solutions’ is to be applauded. It might mean Sunderland are relegated in May, but it might also mean there is a viable business that can look to rebuild with or without Short’s support. Ultimately, that is a much bigger prize that top-flight survival.

**

SHORT is not the only football-club owner to have made mistakes of course. The game is awash with a new generation of owners who have little or no experience, but who think they know best. Which brings us to Birmingham City.

Gary Rowett took over Birmingham shortly after they conceded eight goals to Bournemouth, but guided the club to successive top-ten finishes in the Championship. On Tuesday, they beat Ipswich to move to seventh in the table.

But Birmingham have been taken over by the ridiculously-named Trillion Trophy Asia Limited, and Rowett clearly wasn’t a big enough name to satisfy the Chinese consortium. They wanted Gianfranco Zola, presumably because they’d heard of him. Never mind that the Italian has failed as a manager at West Ham, Watford and Cagliari.

**

MICHAEL VAN GERWEN has won 25 darts tournaments this year, and claimed more than £1m in prize money. He is every bit as dominant now as the legendary Phil Taylor was at his peak.

But whereas Taylor has won 16 World titles, van Gerwen has won one. So when the Dutchman begins his attempt to win the PDC World Championships at Alexandra Palace tomorrow, he does so knowing he will ultimately be judged on how he performs in this competition.

Harsh? Probably, given his all-round excellence over the course of the year. But having watched Gary Anderson win back-to-back World titles, van Gerwen needs to add to his own collection.

**

THE England football captain is snapped drinking in a hotel bar with supporters, and all hell breaks loose. The England rugby captain pole-axes an opponent with a swinging right arm, and is quietly banned for six weeks without his head coach even questioning his position.

But as so many commentators keep on claiming, football could learn so much from rugby, couldn’t it?