Phil Smith's verdict: Sunderland's ownership group have bungled the top-two push in 10 days after staggering implosion and fans have been let down

Not that things were perfect then, far from it.

We knew that this was a team with a soft underbelly, that could be exposed quickly and decisively within games.

Despite an encouraging but narrow win over Portsmouth, form and performances had been patchy in the aftermath of the exhilarating night when Sheffield Wednesday were swept aside at the Stadium of Light.

Sunderland were a flawed side in some departments, but one that still had a very genuine chance of reaching the top two.

Now they are rudderless, facing a battle to even hold onto their place in the top six.

And make no mistake, that will be the foremost challenge for the new head coach when they eventually take charge.

The Black Cats have now won one of their last eight, and the teams below them are improving.

While they grow stronger, Sunderland flounder.

It is almost entirely self-inflicted, too. In ten days, the Black Cats have conspired to torch any realistic prospect of making the top two.

Even by the standards of a club well used to it, it has been a staggering implosion.

There may well have been some understandable footballing reasons behind the decision to part company with Lee Johnson, but it is now abundantly clear that the timing was borne of panic and that the succession plan non-existent.

Sporting Director Kristjaan Speakman was through club channels last week given the task of explaining the decision which ultimately stemmed from the ownership group.

He said it was a decision made primarily to protect the prospect of winning promotion this season, even if there were some other, longer-term factors also at play.

Yet over a week after Johnson’s departure, the club were still holding talks with as many as four candidates.

No successor was in place, and such is the infancy of the club’s rebuild that there was not even a credible candidate to take the role on an interim basis.

Which is why Mike Dodds, a talented development coach who was already acting up as U23s manager, was asked to suddenly lead a team in the heat of a promotion push and in front of 39,000 fans.It has been a bruising experience, he has been utterly thrown to the wolves.

Two utterly vital games have come and gone, and the timeframe for a successor to make a substantive impact is now minimal.

They will get at best one or training sessions before the trip to AFC Wimbledon, and after that there will be only fourteen games of the regular season left.

Speakman spoke of how part of the club’s long-term planning is to track and identify candidates in the case of a dugout change, using scouting and data analysis to spot coaches thriving in a similar game style to the one on Wearside.

What has happened over the past week has underlined that the club was in no way ready to manage that process when the ownership opted for a sudden change in direction.

In the latter stages of the process Sunderland have spoken to Roy Keane, Grant McCann, Alex Neil and Sabri Lamouchi. All have their positives and their drawbacks, but where is the cohesion in that list?

It has been a week that has spoken to a distinct lack of cohesion, the bizarre timing compounded by the fact that the deadline day that followed brought two good signings, yes, but ultimately failed to address key defensive deficiencies.

This is not how this club was meant to operate.

Late last year, Sunderland were asked by prominent fan groups to clarify who owned what shares, in order to establish clearly where power lay behind the scenes.

The club said that they could not and would not.

Such muddled structures can hold through positive results, but they are quickly exposed in times of stress.

So while the executive team have spoken of trying to run a thorough process away from the glare of media and fan scrutiny, in other quarters there has been a concerted push for certain candidates.

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has spoken of a long-term strategy, putting the club on a path to sustainability. On a number of levels the last week has undermined that, and it will keep happening so long as there are clearly so many voices still battling for prominence.

While Speakman has led the search, he admitted on club channels that other members of the ownership group had played a part in the process. Is it any wonder that it has proved such a frenetic process?

And after the repeated failures of previous seasons at this level, why is that happening in the first place?

The season is not yet lost, far from it.

In the first half of this defeat at Cheltenham Town there were positives to take, clear signs of the quality within the group.

Jack Clarke was a constant threat, Jay Matete looked impressive in the centre of midfield and perhaps most encouragingly of all, Trai Hume looked comfortable on debut at right back.

In a more orthodox shape Sunderland, while not exactly dominant, looked fluid and comfortable.

That poise was again undermined by the lack of leadership, the sense of drift that has become all too common of late.

Cheltenham’s first goal took a wicked deflection, yes, but right from the beginning of the second half you watched on in despair as the visitors receded, inviting confidence to grow in the home ranks.

There are players who need to show more without a doubt, but there are also a raft of youngsters who have, like their interim manager, been let down by the lack of leadership from the top of the club over the past week.

There is still a prospect that this all ends in renewed hope.

If the case for Roy Keane seemed strong a week ago, it seems overwhelming now. Forget results just for a moment, supporters are now just desperate to feel like someone is fighting for them.

Sunderland expect to make an appointment before the weekend, and there is still cautious optimism that Keane can be convinced to take the challenge on.

Either way, the club's regime is now facing a fight to restore their credibility after what has been by some distance the worst week of their tenure.

This will not be fixed by one person overnight – far from it.

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