WHEN Sunderland dismissed Phil Parkinson in November 2020, they were caught on the hoof. Without a succession plan in place, Andrew Taylor had to step up for a home game against a Burton Albion side that were struggling in the relegation zone. Sunderland played poorly and drew 1-1.

Lee Johnson was then appointed on the morning of the following weekend’s home game with Wigan Athletic, felt compelled to head straight into the technical area, and presided over a 1-0 defeat. Five points dropped, which by the end of the season were the difference between Sunderland finishing fourth, and having to face Lincoln in the play-offs, and coming third, which would have meant a semi-final against Oxford United. Perhaps Sunderland would have lost that anyway; either way, it was a chaotic managerial transition that could have been avoided.

Fast forward 15 months, and here we are again, watching the same Sunderland hierarchy make the same mistakes. Heading into Saturday’s home game with Doncaster Rovers without a manager in place was a bad decision. Journeying to Cheltenham Town tomorrow night with a temporary managerial structure still in place rather than a new boss would be utterly unforgiveable.

What on earth are Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Kristjaan Speakman doing? Did they really jettison Johnson without having decided what to do next? And having watched their side underperform spectacularly at the weekend, do they really think things are going to be any better at Cheltenham?

The decision to dispense with Johnson’s services was rushed through in the immediate aftermath of Sunderland’s 6-0 thrashing at Bolton, but while the gravity of the loss meant that minds were quickly focused, it is not as if there had not been stirrings of discontent in the previous few weeks. The timing of Johnson’s sacking was something of a surprise, but it was something that had been brewing as a possibility for a while.

It should certainly have sparked a series of discussions about who might arrive as a replacement, and while Speakman outlined his thought process on an interview on Sunderland’s official media channels over the weekend, stating that he felt it would have been disrespectful to Johnson to line up a replacement before he had been sacked, that excuse simply does not wash.

Succession planning is an important part of any business, and a key part of a sporting director’s role is surely to ensure that when a major personnel decision is taken, disruption is kept to an absolute minimum. At the very least, the Sunderland hierarchy should have identified their number one target and made discreet inquiries about their potential availability prior to pulling out the gun to fire Johnson. Instead, they appear to have been starting from a blank sheet of paper, waiting for job applications to appear in their inbox to get the recruitment process going.

That recruitment process, according to Speakman, is “thorough and detailed”. He could also have added that is proving painfully slow. “At the minute, we are interviewing candidates and fact-finding on a couple of extra people,” said Speakman at the weekend. “You’ve got different people from different backgrounds and situations. We’re obviously speaking to coaches directly, agents and solicitors who deal with these members of staff who hopefully want to come here.” And all the while, Sunderland’s hopes of a top-two finish are disappearing into the sunset.

It doesn’t help, of course, that one of the candidates under consideration is a darling of the supporters and an extremely high-profile figure with a prominent media profile. From the minute they decided Roy Keane was going to be on their shortlist and interviewed, Louis-Dreyfus and Speakman must have realised they were going to be in the eye of a media storm.

Had they acted decisively last week, they might have retained control of the recruitment narrative. Instead, the story has escaped from their grasp, with Keane effectively conducting his candidature via a series of smiles and winks on ITV, and a raft of stories appearing in the national press describing the Irishman’s appointment as a fait accompli.

That has left Sunderland’s owners in a devilishly difficult position where it will now be extremely difficult for them not to acquiesce to whatever demands Keane makes of them. The former Black Cats boss certainly has the stronger bargaining position as he knows only too well how the fans will react if he is forced to walk away because Louis-Dreyfus and Speakman will not agree to his terms.

Similarly, Louis-Dreyfus and Speakman must now know how it will look if they are forced to turn to a Grant McCann or an Alex Neil because discussions with Keane break down. If anyone other than Keane is appointed, they will be touted as a second choice, even if that is not the case. And if they do not hit the ground running, they will find themselves having to appease a fanbase who feel they have been let down because of the failure to tie up a deal for Keane.

The situation has become an almighty mess, and while a win at Cheltenham tomorrow night would calm things down slightly, much of the positivity and momentum generated by the deadline-day return of Jermain Defoe has already disappeared.

Defoe’s arrival masked an otherwise troubling deadline day that saw Tom Flanagan leave without a replacement, but while almost 40,000 fans turned up at the Stadium of Light on Saturday wanting to hail the returning hero, they left grumbling about another wasted campaign.

There is still time for that not to turn out to be the case, but the clock is ticking. And every hour that passes without Sunderland appointing their new boss is another hour that has effectively been tossed away.