The major decisions facing Stewart Donald as Sunderland's crisis deepens and fan fears for season grow

Fans have called for change after Parkinson’s wretched start on Wearside, the 1-0 defeat to Gillingham his eighth in just twelve games.

Parkinson will face Simon Grayson’s Blackpool, the former Sunderland boss returning to the Stadium of Light for the first time since he was infamously sacked just minutes after his fifteenth league game in charge.

Donald is a Chairman under significant pressure with fan frustration growing.

We take a look at the background surrounding some of the pivotal decisions he is facing to try and rescue Sunderland’s flatlining season….

THE MANAGER

Just twelve games into Phil Parkinson’s tenure, Donald finds himself under pressure.

So far, the decision to replace Jack Ross with a more experienced League One campaigner has backfired.

Executive Director (until Thursday) Charlie Methven said the decision was made based on ‘underlying performance data’, the inference being that Sunderland in the opening weeks of the season were not performing to the levels required to finish in the top two over the course of the season.

That was a fair point, though a strange one given that their data was better than last season in most departments, particularly defensively.

Certainly, they had not kicked on considerably from last season’s disappointment and fan frustration was growing.

Ross had faced chants of ‘sacked in the morning’ during a difficult 1-1 draw with Bolton Wanderers and though the reception was not so fierce at Lincoln City a couple of weeks later, a woeful performance left many feeling a crossroads has been reached.

Not long after a similarly troubling defeat at Peterborough United, it was obvious that some of the unity and resilience of last season had been eroded.

That was underlined in the demeanor of Ross himself, who had been through a gruelling summer as he waited to learn what would come of two seperate takeover sagas.

It was a big moment.

Sunderland were short of top-two pace but they were comfortably at play-off pace, and had knocked two Premier League sides out of the Carabao Cup.

Regardless, the decision to change approach was one that many agreed with.

The issue for Donald is that in every sense, they have regressed under Parkinson and over the last month, it has been a severe drop-off both in results and performance levels.

They are giving away bigger chances to their opponents and more frequently. Their attacking play is getting worse and the style of play has of late been difficult to watch.

They are averaging just one point-per-game under Parkinson, relegation form in any campaign.

In the aftermath of Ross’ departure, Donald said that he was looking for a manager to win promotion this season.

Methven went on to state that the belief in the boardroom was that this squad should be a top-two side.

Parkinson, it was said, had the pedigree and CV to turn a side performing at a decent League One level into promotion winners. At that stage, Sunderland were one point off sixth with two games in hand, and four points off second with one game in hand.

12 games on and they barely look like play-off contenders, five points off sixth with one game in hand and ten off second with no games in hand on Paul Lambert’s Ipswich.

Parkinson won high praise after the demolition of Tranmere Rovers in his first home game, but since this post-match comments have alarmed a support rightly concerned at a lack of identity and intensity on the pitch.

The selection and subsequent insipid display in the 1-0 defeat to Gillingham only served to strengthen that and Donald now finds himself in a bind.

Though Parkinson’s appointment was presented as a short-term solution to Sunderland’s League One problem, the reality is that he has been backed for the long term.

In his first press conference, he said he was eager to play his part in building up the football side of the club stripped back following consecutive relegations. That included a new scouting network and in Nick Allamby, a key appointment to the sports science department.

He also brought in an entirely new backroom staff, Andrew Taylor appointed as first-team coach even after fans had vocally called for his departure after the woeful final 20 minutes against Burton Albion.

Bizarrely, that appointment was never officially confirmed until Parkinson spoke to the press in the run-up to the Gillingham game.

Most importantly of all, the new manager was handed a lengthy two-and-a-half year contract.

This then, was a significant shift in a completely new direction from the Ross era.

Parkinson has been in regular and extensive dialogue with Donald and head of recruitment Tony Coton regarding the January window, a month that the club now seems to see as pivotal in turning around the season.

What was not so long deemed to be one of the very best squads in the league is now deemed to be in need of major surgery, with as many as five new additions touted by Methven before his recent resignation.

Clearly, if Parkinson is to persist with the style so clearly unsuited to this squad, players of his own are required.

It’s a high-stakes gamble given the well-known difficulties when it comes to recruiting in the winter window.

Donald is keeping his faith in Parkinson for now, but the bullish comments regarding promotion seem a long time ago and the mood amongst the fanbase must be a major concern.

So much of his ownership has depended on significant buy-in and support from fans, and at the point where that is at serious risk amid a multitude of concerns over the club’s direction, not acting is just as big a gamble.

It will take an extraordinary turnaround to get this team, seemingly completely devoid of conviction and confidence at this stage, to get to where Sunderland need to be this season.

Parkinson has thus far been unable to find the answers.

OFF THE PITCH

Methven’s resignation also leaves Donald with much to ponder off the pitch.

After a recent break from front-line duties, the Sunderland chairman returned to see first-hand just how bad a rut the first team is in against Burton.

Sunderland has now seen two departures from the club’s boardroom this season, with Tony Davison leaving the club in October.

He is yet to be replaced, and so Sunderland have a clear lack of management on the commercial and business side of the club.

Donald’s long-standing associate Neil Fox is also on the board, but Methven recently told the Echo this was in a part-time capacity.

Juan Sartori is said to be taking a more frontline role following his return to the UK, but he was recently elected as a senator in Uruguay and has not been since on Wearside since the opening day of the season.

On the football side of the club, the team looks as muddled as it ever has done in recent times and that has to call into question the functioning of that department.

The club’s strategy for long-term success in unclear and the painful transition since Parkinson took charge has only served to underline that.

The FPP group are set to send a representative to this Thursday’s board meeting and it would be interesting to know what they make of Sunderland’s ailing campaign.

Their intentions remain unknown, adding to the sense of drift and unease.

Promotion back to the Championship looks further away now than it has done at any stage during Donald’s time on Wearside.

With parachute payments ending this season, the consequences of not landing promotion will be significant.

The stakes could not be higher and the worry for supporters right now is that Sunderland is a club that just doesn’t seem to have the answers.