Viewed as a joke; why would any manager already in a stable job leave to come to Sunderland?

It was only 24 hours or so ago that I published a piece on this site explaining the need for the Sunderland supporters to get behind Derek McInnes once he became our new manager.

Compensation was agreed, McInnes was going to have his wages trebled upon taking up the role and the Aberdeen fans had, begrudgingly, resigned themselves to losing their much-loved gaffer to a club south of the border.

Martin Bain headed to Florida - where the Aberdeen boss was holidaying with his family - to finalise the deal. His appointment seemed a mere formality, at least from the outside looking in.

The reality, however, was that McInnes wasn't completely sold on the idea of coming to Sunderland and meeting with us to discuss the role we wanted him to fulfill merely strengthened his hand as both the manager of Aberdeen and as a man on his own. This whole saga may well have caused widespread uncertainty amongst the supporters of the Dons but he returns back there now even more of a hero than he already was - this is the man who turned down the chance to leave in order to stay and make things work with a club he has already rebuilt from the ground up. And good on him.

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This of course leaves Sunderland in a rather perilous position.

Who now? Simon Grayson tops the list of favourites, and would be a decent fit when you consider his managerial background of succeeding at struggling clubs on a shoestring budget, but why would he, like McInnes, leave a stable job to come here?

There have been suggestions in this morning's press that McInnes turned the job down as he feared he'd become obsolete in the event of an ownership takeover which begs the question - just how advanced are these alleged talks with potential new owners?

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The club are going to struggle to find a capable manager with this hanging over them - you'd imagine that only someone without a job, desperate for work would take the role under the current circumstances. Couple that with fan pressure to appoint someone quickly and it really shows just how strained things are becoming.

The statement put out yesterday by the club once Aberdeen had confirmed that McInnes was staying was absolutely embarrassing - Martin Bain, hilariously, tried to make out that the decision not to bring McInnes on board was a mutual one.

Please, do not insult our intelligence.

We're under two weeks away from pre-season starting and we have no new signings lined up, no new manager and a whole host of players that are out of contract sat in limbo waiting to see if they're staying or going. It's comical.

For too long now this club has been viewed as a joke from people outside of the club, and it has gotten to the point now where I can't help but laugh along with them. Sunderland, turned down by the manager of Aberdeen? How has it came to this? No offence of course, but it's thoroughly depressing even having to type those words.

One day we'll look back on this entire sorry episode and laugh. I hope.