The two questions that will define Sunderland for years to come as Wearside eagerly awaits change

It has been another tumultuous 48 hours on Wearside but the visit of Burton Albion is crucial if Sunderland are to stay in touch with the top two.

Like Fleetwood, they have proved to be a tricky opponent and one who the Black Cats have not beaten since dropping into League One.

Without Nigel Clough they have struggled this season, and presented is the kind of opportunity Sunderland have too often passed up.

It is impossible, though, not to feel a little distracted.

Sunderland stands on the brink of change and it feels as if the coming weeks are going to present us with the answer, at least in part, to the two questions that will define the club's progress for some time to come.

What's the plan?

And exactly whose plan is it?

The managerial question may be the most pressing but in truth, it is just one (admittedly crucial) part of a wider puzzle at a club where the need for change and investment extends well beyond the dugout.

It is well known by now but worth repeating. Sunderland need not only a new manager, but a new chair of the board, a new academy manager, a new recruitment chief (and a significant bolstering of that department in general) and a new U18s manager.

Even the early stages of the managerial discussions highlight the debate that underpins all of this.

Though the signs are that the net is being cast a little wider than last time around, when League One experience was deemed the ultimately defining characteristic required, but the two early favourites reflect the questions on where we go from here.

Danny Cowley is a strong candidate and one who is surely deserving of a significant League One opportunity somewhere along the way. His work at Lincoln City was exceptional, and an ultimately disappointing end to a year at Huddersfield Town should be put in its full context.

Sunderland supporters know only too well the helplessness of watching a team ground down by Premier League relegation finding themselves exposed in the brutally competitive environment of the Championship. To arrest that, as Cowley did with the Terriers, is worthy of respect and his departure seemed to be a reflection more of a desire to change direction in recruitment and style than it was results.

Style is nevertheless an important point to consider.

Cowley's reputation for favouring a direct style may be a little overblown but unquestionably, there is a stark contrast with the patient, possession-focused approach so closely associated with Gus Poyet.

How you feel about Poyet and a potential return perhaps depends on what sticks with you most from the first time around.

Is it those wonderfully controlled displays that won derbies and dispatched Manchester United? Or is that that truly insipid ending, taken apart in 45 minutes by Tim Sherwood's Aston Villa.

Regardless, these two contrasting styles underpin the challenge that lies ahead for Sunderland.

Look at it this way. The appointment of either of these as manager would have significant consequences for the club in general. Each, for example, will require a very different approach to recruitment, an entirely different profile of player to implement their vision.

Most importantly, each will look for differing skill sets in the academy players pushing for first-team recognition.

The same applies to Paul Cook, Nigel Pearson, or any other candidate who may be interviewed in the week ahead.

So what are Sunderland looking for?

What is the vision to progress the club not just this season but beyond? What's the style of play and identity that the club intends to build its recruitment model around, and implement to ensure there is a consistent pathway to the first team for academy players?

There has not been one for the best part of a decade and the result has been obvious. Muddled and ineffective recruitment, unbalanced sides patched up from window to window, and a churn of managers with no coherent thread or pattern.

We see the effects of this most obviously when the team is outplayed by an upwardly-mobile MK Dons side. We see it more subtly in the 16-year-old debutant who travels in just two years from one of the academy's brightest products, to a loan in the seventh tier, before leaping to the first-team squad of a team with serious designs on promotion for the Championship.

We know the qualities of the most loved Sunderland sides.

There is room for craft (and this can sometimes be lost) and ingenuity, without a doubt. There is also a desire for intensity and aggression. There are a myriad of clubs throughout the pyramid who have built medium to long-term success on a defined pressing style, one that is transferable from coach to coach. Why not Sunderland?

Relegation to League One provided a unique moment for reset and deep structural change, but under Madrox the short-term was prioritised and the same mistakes made.

The impending arrival of Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, Wearside hopes, brings a new approach.

That is worth remembering. It has been a wretched 18 months to follow Sunderland, and what unites a fanbase that has been routinely misled and disappointed is a desire for stability and progress.

Any investor should welcome cautious optimism, and any scepticism, as a healthy opportunity to prove their commitment and win what would be a groundswell of ferocious support.

At this stage, there are too many unknowns to be definitive. We do not know how the shareholding will break down, and who will therefore have the defining say in key decisions.

That means we do not yet have the answer to those two vital questions.

What's the plan?

And exactly whose plan is it?

The new regime are believed to be preparing to install a Sporting Director, a role that generally brings with it major responsibility for safeguarding the footballing culture from first-team level right down the youngster age groups of the Academy.

To appoint a manager first would be a curious decision, though if the parameters for the future have been set from the top, it is not inconceivable for it to work.Wearside waits with bated breath.

Without doubt, what is needed from a new manager is a lift and a presence.

Most importantly, though, is that their appointment can be followed by senior figures at Sunderland being able to then explain exactly how their chosen candidate fits in with their plan for the club.

How it aligns with how they intend to improve the club's woeful recruitment record, and how it aligns with their attempt to improve the pathway from the academy.

Not just to win promotion, but to do so with a strategy that can allow for a stable progression into the Championship.

There has already been neutral talk outside of Wearside of big expectations, of pressure and a need to win now at all costs.

There is pressure to win League One win games, without a doubt (and remember that the ownership set a 100-point target at the beginning of last season, one that many fans saw as reckless).

It is also, though, both misleading and reductive.

This is a club that has run out of quick fixes, and a fanbase that is desperate for stability allied with sensible investment and room for growth.

In short, the things that have been in short supply over the last two-and-a-half years.

Scepticism, then, is fair when it remains unclear how deep the change will be.

Make no mistake, if it is far reaching, it will be met with universal acclaim.

The buy-in will be vast, as it was two-and-a-half years ago when they came in their thousands to change seats, to buy season tickets, to break attendance records.

They say that it's the hope they can't stand, and here they are again. Cautious, wary, hopeful.

What's the plan?

And exactly whose plan is it?

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