KEVIN BELL

Fascinating but flawed, Sunderland are good guys again ... enjoy the ride

Festivities are at an end and it is time to remove the cold compress from the brow, forswear the Bavarian Pils for vitamin pills. Happy New Year to all Sunderland fans - if you’re not a Sunderland supporter you’ll just have to make the best of it.

Helping put a spring into the step is the general sense of well-being at SAFC.

One of the most reassuring aspects of the nascent Sunderland regime is the management style of Jack Ross.

The club’s recent Premier League stint was peppered with head coaches and managers whose reaction to setbacks, often of their own making, ranged from petulant to selfserving.

Not so with the current boss. In the midst of a season, it is easy to forget the scale of challenges Ross inherited on his arrival in the summer.

He has renovated a squad and coaching set-up, adapted to a new league and been obliged to keep some players he would have preferred moved on.

Add to this a number of poor refereeing decisions going against his team, persistent cheap, ill-informed shots from managers of other League One clubs about relative budgets and the occasional snarl would not seem unwarranted. That his team have delivered positive results so consistently against this backdrop does the manager great credit.

Ross has appeared unruffled throughout all of it. He has remained measured in his reaction to success, never claiming it as his own, and the thankfully infrequent disappointments.

Unlike many of his predecessors, Ross has admitted responsibility when he has made an occasional error and emerged as a stronger, more trustworthy leader for doing so.

All of which is not to say that I agree with all of the manager’s choices.

I find that he often leaves it a little too long to make his substitutions when players are either tiring or out of form.

However, despite my having captained the Ivy House to glory in the Duffers Cup about 15 years ago, such is the level of trust engendered by the manager I am prepared to concede that Jack Ross knows better than I do.

A lot of football remains to be played this season with the inevitable bumps in the road along the way.

Ross will require supporters to be mindful of the huge positive changes he has overseen so far and stick with the team at these points.

His demeanour and willingness to seek solutions rather than excuses bode well.

The transfer window is open! Happy days indeed. The running total denoting the amount of money splurged which Sky Sports utilise is an especially gruesome accompaniment to the whole ghastly bun fight.

The total on show is apparently an indicator of success the higher the amount displayed. Steve Bruce’s return to management should get the numbers ticking.

My snowflake squeamishness aside, the window represents opportunity for Sunderland.

The club’s finances, whilst not the problem they once were, still mean SAFC are unlikely to contribute significantly to Sky’s number board.

The primary objective probably still remains shedding Premier League wage obligations the club still have; doing so would give much further scope to any potential additions to the squad.

Sunderland’s form of late has been poor compared to earlier in the season and the return from injury of players like Wyke and Watmore are welcome, but the transfer window offers another avenue of freshening up a squad whose dip in form has been somewhat amplified by the number of games played in a short space of time.

The suggestions in the press are that SAFC are poised to make at least one signing quickly.

Hopefully this is the case and all incoming players arrive quickly. Anyone hoping the club spends extravagantly is likely heading for disappointment.

I personally hope Sunderland spend as little as possible to get promoted. Spending freely guarantees nothing. Spending wisely, if thriftily, should get the job done.

May seems a long way away but will be upon us soon enough. So, what can we expect from the rest of the season?

Sunderland never seem to be involved in a season that lacks drama and this one is unlikely to prove an exception.

Even a truly awful game like the Shrewsbury game was compelling, as the home team hammered away trying to find a winning goal against opposition who gave the purest display of “outhousery” seen so far at the Stadium of Light this season, and there have been some belters.

Don’t wait for the next series of ‘Sunderland ‘Til I Die’ on TV to experience the drama. Get along to the game as often as you can to participate.

Jack Ross’s team are a fascinating and honest lot. The squad is talented for League One but flawed, as all teams in the division are.

I’m not sure if it is their talent or their flaws that make the team such a magnet for edge-of-the-seat jeopardy. Either way it seems routine home wins or straightforward away victories are anathema to them.

The players have been a credit to themselves this season. This combined with the efforts behind the scenes to reconnect the club to the community, and not being a Premier League, or even Championship for now, club doesn’t feel like the disaster it once did.

Jeopardy and drama seem standard at SAFC. The difference now is that the players and hierarchy are genuine and any shortfall in quality on the pitch is nothing to do with a lack of effort.

Sunderland are the good guys again.

Chris Maguire’s form has dipped a little of late and that has coincided with the team lacking fluency and becoming overly reliant on Aiden McGeady to create chances.

Maguire (pictured) reminds me of former Sunderland forward John Byrne, in as much as he has had a great career but perhaps never consistently played at the level his considerable talent warrants.

Even when not at his best, Maguire works hard for the team and produces moments of real quality every game.

His experience at this level and flinty, competitive character, unusual in a flair player, have been as important as his ability this season.

Like Byrne, Maguire’s career has been somewhat peripatetic, so it would come as no great surprise if the Scot’s stay on Wearside is not a lengthy one. However, players of this ilk are to be cherished as, though they may not shine for long, they do so memorably.

Maguire has the skill to put defenders on their backsides and get supporters off theirs.

One moment of class from him can brighten a match in a league of high drama but not necessarily high quality. Enjoy Chris Maguire while you can.