Jack Rodwell exit would lift Sunderland fans' perpetual Blue Mondays

The gloom starts around final whistle on the Saturday and continues throughout the week. Today things don’t look any brighter.

When your team is bottom of the division and the coffers are empty, every day feels like a Blue Monday.

We’d love to report some light at the end of the tunnel, but bad news begets bad news for the Black Cats at the moment. Saturday’s defeat plunged the club deeper into the mire. The situation was already grim with news that record signing Didier Ndong didn’t fancy the fight and asked to leave the club. To rub salt in the wounds, he played ... and promptly got himself red carded! Now we reveal that Jack Rodwell will be allowed to leave the club on a free transfer.

If any player sums up the calamity of Sunderland it is Mr Rodwell. Signed to much fanfare for £10million, it was deal with promise. Today, Rodwell languishes on the sidelines, picking up a weekly salary most Sunderland folk would dream of receiving as their annual wage packet. He’s not playing in a struggling Championship side, yet goes public with claims he could play for England ... at centre back!

What hurts most with Sunderland’s current malaise is the fact that, at last, we appear to have a manager at the helm who really gets the club and the fans. Unfortunately, a combination of bad luck, inherited headaches and a transfer war chest that would struggle to fund a game of bar skittles let alone a relegation fight is holding him back.

Sunderland have always done things the hard way, so it comes as no surprise to discover that to move forward they have to get their biggest signings off the books!

If Blue Mondays are to turn into Sparkling Saturdays, these players have to be ushered out the Stadium of Light exit doors sooner rather than later.