Fan Letters: “Does relegation to League One have to be a negative thing for Sunderland?!”

Dear Roker Report,

Unfortunately Monday’s defeat all but consigned us to playing third tier football next season. Like many others I feel that our fate has been sealed for some time.

Of course, the prospect of travelling to Gillingham, Southend and possibly even Accrington Stanley for league fixtures is a bleak one, however I think it’s time we started to try and grasp at some slim positives.

For every Blackpool that fell into League One there was a Leicester, for every Portsmouth there was a Southampton, whilst League One allowed Norwich and now Wolves to rehabilitate and return to the top of English football.

Could it be possible that a season in League One could allow the radical change that the club has longed for to finally occur? Only time will tell, but it is worth bearing in mind that other clubs have fallen out of the Premier League into League One in a short space of time and returned stronger and better equipped, and we should cling to the hope that we can do something similar.

Louis Dinsdale

Ed’s note: Of course it is bad. We are currently in the lowest ebb of a once-proud 130 years history. A club like Sunderland simply shouldn't not be in this position. Celebrating survival and embracing relegation is what losers do. We cannot go on doing it anymore.

However, unfortunately we are a club with Premier League facilities and history, Championship players (just) and a League One budget. Of the whole division, only Blackburn and Wigan spent more than us this season.

League One will be bleak, but I agree we can rebuild there in the short-term. The Championship is more than ever simply a Premier League 2 - just see how much money Newcastle, Wolves, Villa, Boro et al spent to mixed success in the division.

Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

Dear Roker Report,

I have a few points.

1 - I’m sick of hearing that the squad is better than our current league position suggests. It may be true but we’re going down - so what’s gone wrong?

2 - Martin Bain’s comment about ‘efficiency’ when we sold Vito Mannone - really?!

3 - If Ellis Short is such a good businessman then why has he turned his back on the club, in turn managing to reduce its value?

4 - I’m genuinely concerned we’ll be in League One, if we don’t get relegated again, for some time. Thoughts?

5 - When will the pain end?

SAFC North Yorkshire

Ed’s note: Call me naïve, but I have no doubt this will turn under Cookie. He makes mistakes, all managers do. However, he has the perfect mentality to rid the negative mentality and atmosphere which has pervaded all aspects of the club for some time now.

That's our problem. We don't need another firebrand in the Keano/PDC/Big Sam mould. We've tried that and it failed. No more firefighting. Let's carte blanche transform the losing culture at this club. Coleman done it at Wales, and he WILL do it here.

We can blame Coleman and Grayson or Bain and Byrne, the players and backroom staff or even ourselves. Maybe we all hab e our own fair share. But there is one man monolithic and omniscient during all of this utter shambles; Ellis Short.

I sincerely hope we can come back up straight away. But as long as Short is in charge, that won’t change.