Fans deserve takeover clarity
So far, so good.
Sunderland are slightly behind League One's early pacesetters but they are tracking at two-points-per-game and there is a consistency in their defensive resilience.
At a time when daily life feels as if it is being constantly upended, changing direction every time you refresh the news, there has been something reassuring about Phil Parkinson's side and their steadfast refusal to give up chances.
Of course, their early performances have not been without question marks and particularly in the final third, there is still plenty to prove.
The early markers, though, are generally encouraging.
If there remain some terrace (or sitting room) nerves then that reflects as much the desperation to make it out of this league at the third time of asking, and the fears for the future if that does not happen.
At the heart of this is the continueduncertaintyoverthe proposed takeover of the club.
We say proposed, though it's worth remembering that there has been at no stage any official update for supporters during the process.
The information that has been publicly available to fans is short and as follows.
When appointed as CEO in June, Jim Rodwell said Stewart Donald's intention to sell the club would have no impact on his work, and the bigger challenge for his tenure would be dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic (in fairness, this has largely proven to be the case).
“All the uncertainty as far as we’re concerned is due to the virus,” he said.
“Any takeover or lack of is not even part of the thought process. It’s not something we discuss. We march on doing what we’re employed to do and what the challenge is. It’s an irrelevance to me, to be perfectly honest."
In July, Rodwell hosted a meeting with Donald and key supporters groups. It was a highly-charged affair, in which Donald claimed (amongst other things) that the attitude of supporters was putting off potential investors.
Supporters present were also told that a potential deal had collapsed due to the pandemic, and that there were no prospective buyers in the 'data room'.
In short, there was no deal imminent. It came as something of a surprise, then, when it emerged that the club had entered a period of exclusivity with a buyer.
The deal, it was said, should be concluded by the start of the season.
There was no club comment, with Phil Parkinson offering an understandably reserved response when he was the first club figure in a position to be asked about the situation at the beginning of pre-season.
"I can't remember being at a club where there is no takeover talk," he said.
"That's just modern football and being a football manager in the modern game. I don't listen to it too much. If there's anything I need to know, Stewart Donald will ring me up.
"He's kept me informed of things along the way, I speak to him regularly and if there's anything I need to know he tells me.
"As you know, lots of people like to be linked with buying a club. Putting the money down and actually buying it, that's a different thing."
Parkinson has had major challenges this summer, but they have related mostly to the pandemic and the hastily-installed salary cap rules.
The wait for takeover news has gone on. That initial date has been pushed back, initially until the beginning of October.
November looms and still, we wait.
Which in itself is no major surprise. Madrox said in May that it was difficult to put a timescale on a sale when no one could say for certain when supporters would be allowed back into grounds.
In the weeks leading up to the beginning of the campaign, there has been grounds for optimism and the first week of October looked like a realistic date for a limited return.
The resurgence of the virus has changed everything and clubs are facing a long, uncertain winter.
It is not the ideal time to try and sell a football club.
The point, though, is that fans can only suppose and hypothesise as to where things stand, having been left in the dark for the vast majority of this calender year.
That heated meeting proved to be something of a tipping point. It came at the end of two failed attempts to win promotion, as the sale of academy products accelerated, and as two years of continued financial miscommunication led to a total breakdown in trust.
Some of the decisions that came out of that environment were good ones.
Donald stepped back from footballing matters and with him went much of the decisionmaking network he had put in place on his arrival.
Some of the signs in the academy and in recruitment since then have been encouraging.
In late August, as part of the traditional Foundation of Light fixtures breakfast, non-executive directors David Jones and Tom Sloan es spoke passionately and eloquently about their desire for improvement. It was heartening (and convincing) communication, notable mainly because it has been otherwise absent of late.
The issue with the lack of clarity over the takeover is that it is preventing debate over the club's long-term future, both in terms of the pandemic and beyond it.
There is still no Academy Manager in place, and the recruitment department remains underpowered after the events of the last two years.
Key players are in the final year of their deal and there is no chair of the board.
Rodwell did provide a financial update of sorts, last week, in conversation with Sky Sports News.
Takeover news, though, remained absent.
While there is plenty to take heart from on the pitch so far this season, the lack of clarity off it cannot continue indefinitely.
Supporters are surely due an update.