Another cock up in a toe-curling year? Martin Bain's first 12 months have been a disaster

He didn't really fly out to Florida only to be snubbed by the man he had travelled 4,000 miles to meet - did he?

Sunderland are back to square one this morning after nearly four weeks hunting for a new manager.

Derek McInnes has turned down a move to the Stadium of Light and the most important summer in a decade has the Black Cats manager-less in mid-June with just two weeks until pre-season starts.

Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images

Reports had suggested that having been given permission to speak to Aberdeen boss Mcinnes, chief executive Martin Bain had flown out to Florida to negotiate terms with the 45-year-old. Well - that's gonna be one long lonely flight back with nothing to show for it.

Naturally, dismal hypotheses have been drawn. Sunderland clearly have no money to spend this summer. Not even sufficient to lure a man from Aberdeen to take a chance on the Stadium of Light gig. The once-in-a-decade talent produced by the club has been flogged to Everton for ready cash - cash which will never be reinvested in the squad.

And the humiliation just continues. Worse than the laughing-stock state though, is the worry as to how bad this is going to get yet.

One man has been tasked to find a successor to David Moyes, and one man is making a whole hash of it.

With the July 1st anniversary of his arrival on Wearside in a couple of weeks' time, chief executive Martin Bain really must consider his own position this morning after an embarrassing year which continues to get worse.

Considered an experienced football administrator when he arrived on Wearside, Bain is a derided figure in Glasgow for his part in Rangers' downfall - whatever that part really was.

But he landed on Wearside with a clean slate in English football and despite initial rhetoric about reconnecting the club with its community, it is clear that Bain has simply been employed to do his master's bidding.

Ellis Short wants out and Martin Bain is the man tasked with ticking the business over while chopping bits here and there to keep the wolves from the door.

Those wolves may just as likely be on the inside as the outside. There's something seriously wrong within Sunderland and the chief executive is proving unable to fix it.

Some conspiracy theorists still hold that Sunderland will enter administration in early July. Whilst the logic for such a move appears to make little sense, it is probable that there is something so seriously flawed at the club right now, supporters have only scratched the surface as to what that may be.

After the stinging embarrassment of the Margaret Byrne-era at Sunderland AFC, most assumed Martin Bain would at least steady the ship a little and get the business back on track somewhat.

Instead many will argue it's gotten worse. And as at this morning, it would be hard to disagree with them.

After a muted start to his public presence on Wearside, Bain launched himself on the Sunderland public with a miserable pre-Christmas address in which he grimaced his way through a stilted speech telling supporters there was no money to be spent and all hope should be abandoned.

To really slam home his message, the CEO donned a dark suit and appeared against a black backdrop to complete the whole wake-effect and mourn the demise of all ambition at Sunderland.

It would prove to be no coincidence that the Black Cats - who had managed a minor run of form at the time of his interview - then slumped to just two further wins in the remaining six months of the season.

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Layer on top the announcing of redundancies at the same time as the failing first team were treat to a short-break in New York - which some have described as resembling a "stag-do"; and a continuing sequence of PR gaffes, and Bain's position is essentially untenable.

His unerring support for David Moyes and backing the dour Scot long after the optimum point for sacking him proved to be a dire judgement call. And after all that misery and instructing supporters that it was for their own good, the manager who seemingly enjoyed such a close relationship with Bain walked out anyway once he'd overseen a painful relegation.

And if you thought launching that horror show of a new shirt was as bad as things were going to get this week, being turned down by a manager who opted to stay in Scottish football rather than take a chance on Sunderland, just ensured another period of humiliation at the club which continues to slap itself around the head.

The man at the helm - Martin Bain - has some questions to answer. And that curt statement released in his name last night answers none of them.

Frankly, if a consortium is really preparing a takeover bid for Sunderland right now, surely they won't consider keeping this hapless disaster-lurcher on. Or so we should hope.