WHEN you are digging yourself into a hole, it can often be hard to know when to lay down your shovel. In every bad situation, there is a point where the main priority has to be not making things worse.

Sunderland have reached that point, indeed some would claim they breached it years ago. So while it is tempting to call for David Moyes’ head in an attempt to spark an upturn of fortunes that could result in yet another ‘Great Escape’, the Black Cats are right to stand by their manager, even if it makes them the odd club out at the bottom of the table.

And if the worst was to happen over the course of the next two months, they would also be right to resist the urge to jettison Moyes in the event of relegation. Martin Bain wants to stick with his current manager, even if Sunderland find themselves in the Championship next season. It is the right call.

It would not be the most popular one, and since Aitor Karanka left Middlesbrough, my social media accounts have been inundated with messages from Sunderland supporters bemoaning the lack of criticism that has been levelled at Moyes.

There is clearly a section of the Black Cats support that feel the Scotsman has been allowed to get away with a season of underachievement. In their eyes, relegation was never inevitable, and Moyes’ actions have been a major contributory factor to the mess that sees Sunderland heading to Watford tomorrow seven points adrift of safety with just ten games remaining.

The Northern Echo:

This is not going to be a column that absolves the current incumbent at the Stadium of Light of all blame. Moyes has made mistakes, most notably when it has come to some of his signings and his inflexibility in terms of personnel. Why hasn’t Wahbi Khazri had more of a role this season? Why has Jason Denayer been shuffled around so much when he is arguably Sunderland’s best centre-half?

Moyes’ public comments have been unnecessarily negative on a number of occasions, and he has never looked like emulating Sam Allardyce in terms of developing a shape and structure that makes Sunderland hard to break down. Indeed, it is hard to claim the former Everton and Manchester United boss has markedly improved anything since he took over last summer.

Even so, he remains the right man for the job for two key reasons. First, he finds himself in a situation that would have proved too much for any manager in the country to counteract, and deserves an opportunity to rebuild Sunderland from a position of relative security. Second, another bout of instability is exactly what Sunderland do not need as they look to get their finances under control.

The first argument is hard to quantify, but does anyone truly believe Sunderland are in a false position given the weakness of their squad? The team that will start at Vicarage Road tomorrow is not good enough to remain in the top-flight, and for justifiable reasons in the face of a £140m debt, Moyes has been denied the finances that might have enabled him to do something about it.

Yes, money was spent last summer. But it was nothing like the headline figures that were being bandied around. Papy Djilobodji’s move from Chelsea might have been described as an £8m deal, but only a fraction of that sum was paid up front. The same was true of Didier Ndong’s ‘club-record’ transfer from Lorient.

Moyes has been criticised for bringing in cut-price players he has been associated with in the past, but finding himself unable to make significant inroads in the transfer market, it was hardly a surprise to see him turning to the likes of Steven Pienaar and Victor Anichebe. The transfers haven’t really worked, but you get what you pay for, and Moyes has found himself in a position where he has been forced to trawl the footballing bargain bin.

He has also been handicapped by the failings of those who preceded him, and who stocked the Sunderland squad with a host of injury-prone players. If you sign the likes of Jack Rodwell and Jan Kirchhoff, you shouldn’t really be surprised when they are unavailable for long spells.

The Northern Echo:

Moyes has spent most of this season managing with one hand tied behind his back, and he deserves a chance to assemble his own squad, even if that chance comes in the Championship. With the majority of Sunderland’s players having relegation clauses in their contracts, and the likes of Jordan Pickford and Lamine Kone likely to move on this summer for sizeable fees, relegation shouldn’t mean a financial implosion.

Having assiduously built a squad over a period of seasons at Everton, Moyes has proved capable of slowly building from an unfavourable base. For a number of years now, Sunderland have been a club desperately in need of a similar long-term rebuild.

Speaking last December, Bain admitted: “We’ve reached a point where we can’t have a short-term hit to plug holes in the dam.” He was answering a question about the potential for signings in the January transfer window, but was also making a nod towards the potential for changing managers. By constantly chopping and changing their boss, Sunderland have created as many problems as they have solved.

Aside from the direct financial impact of sacking a manager and his entourage, every time Ellis Short has pulled the trigger in the last six years, he has perpetuated a cycle that sees a new manager arrive to spend millions on new players, only for his successor a year or so later to decide those players do not fit the model of what he is trying to do.

The constant churn resulted in a farcical situation where Sunderland signed 50 players and only made a profit on three of them. If Moyes was to leave tomorrow, it’s safe to assume his successor would look at the current squad and want to clear the decks entirely no matter what the financial consequence.

Sunderland cannot keep ripping up the script in order to start again, even if their current storyboard makes for pretty unpalatable reading. Moyes might not be the perfect manager, but he is the one who finds himself holding the cards now the shuffling appears to have stopped. Even if he suffers relegation this season, he should be granted an opportunity to play the hand he has been dealt.