New Sunderland boss Alex Neil won't forget his first week on Wearside after ownership revelations

Try Sunderland AFC.

Welcome to Wearside, Alex Neil.

The events and ownership revelations of the past few days will have given him a good insight into why Sunderland remain a League One club and look very much - at this stage - remaining one come the end of the season.

Off the pitch matters have dominated the news agenda in recent days, rightly so after it was revealed Kyril Louis-Dreyfus owns just 41% of the club. The Madrox members the remaining 59%.

On the pitch, Neil saw for himself the issues facing Sunderland as they look to turn their fortunes around.

Indeed within the space of a 40 minute training session on Friday and the 1-1 draw with AFC Wimbledon on Saturday, astute Neil had pinpointed the problems.

"What struck me about that team was that I think there were seven players under the age of 22," he said.

"So there's not a lot of experience there and there's a gap in terms of, experienced players have come into the club but they've not had many minutes, so they're coming from a standing start.

"Then you have a lot of lads in their first year and at the minute, a lot of them look tired.

"Ultimately, we haven't got a huge of amount of options so that's something I need to have a good look at."

Those words should have had Kristjaan Speakman wincing. It also doesn't help that Denver Hume and Tom Flanagan were allowed to leave without suitable replacements arriving.

On and off the pitch, the past three weeks at Sunderland have been a complete mess.

For Neil and the players, however, this week has at least represented a chance to get some solid days on the training pitches and work on the style and press that Neil will want to implement.

The players, who have badly underperformed, have to shut out the external factors and focus on their jobs. Victory and three points to kick-start this sorry season.

For there is a very real risk, at this stage, that a top 6 spot could even escape SAFC this season.

One thing is for sure, Neil won't forget his opening week on Wearside in a hurry.

Welcome to Sunderland.

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