Sunderland fans turn on Moyes as drop is confirmed

THE Stadium of Light was half-deserted by the time Sunderland’s relegation was confirmed and you wonder if many of those who had walked out will ever come back if David Moyes stays in charge.

Such was the level of apathy and disinterest that it was not until after Josh King’s late winner that supporters even mustered the anger to turn on their beleaguered boss.

That is what Moyes has done to this club — drained it of energy and enthusiasm. And now, finally, its Premier League status has gone too, a decade after promotion.

This has been coming since the day in August when Moyes confessed that a season-long struggle against relegation lay ahead.

He was wrong on one thing. That struggle did not last the season. It has expired with four games to spare, Hull’s point at Southampton leaving Sunderland an irretrievable 13 points from safety. Moyes will assess his future after the remaining dead-rubbers are played out, but the final offerings from fans here were calls for him to go.

He has done little to inspire his players or supporters for the entirety of a calamitous campaign. His rallying cry on the eve of this game told a lot about his mindset and the regard — albeit a low one — in which he holds his squad.

He said: ‘I thought the other night (a 1-0 defeat at Middlesbrough) a lot of them played as well as they possibly can. Can they play better than that? I am not sure they can.’

Again, though, it was a diversionary tactic. And that has been Moyes’ modus operandi since realising the gravity of his error in saying ‘yes’ to owner Ellis Short last July. He spoke repeatedly — with some justification — of pre-existing issues. The club’s debt levels of £110million tell of several years of mis-management.

But Moyes became obsessed with those problems, blinding him to the task of making better the mess he inherited.

He spoke last night of his ‘worst day in football’ and did at least apologise to fans.

‘I hoped it would never come around,’ he said. ‘I’m disappointed for the supporters. I’m sorry that we weren’t able to do a better job.’

But, tellingly, he added: ‘I’ve said near enough from the start that I’m experienced and I know what a Premier League team looks like and I’ve felt like we’ve been short of a bit of quality to try to make that difference.’

Would another manager have fared any better? ‘I think it’s been a frustrating manager’s chair for just about any manager,’ he said.

Frustrating, yes, but not one of the previous seven managers has taken the club down. Sam Allardyce kept them up with largely the same squad last season, as did Dick Advocaat 12 months earlier, and Gus Poyet and Paolo di Canio before that.

Moyes was supposed to be the man to break that cycle of late-season survival acts. He has achieved that, at least.