Who is to blame for Sunderland's relegation?

• READ THIS: Sunderland relegated after Bournemouth defeat

Yet while Saturday might have seen the curtain close on the Black Cats’ ten-year stay in the top-flight, this was not a relegation that crept up on the club. It has felt inevitable all season – Sunderland have not been out of the bottom three since mid-September – indeed it could be argued that it has been on the cards for at least four or five years.

After dicing with disaster on countless occasions in the past, Sunderland’s luck has finally run out. So what has gone so disastrously wrong this season to make the Black Cats the worst team in the Premier League? And who is to blame for the club’s collapse?

ELLIS SHORT

Sunderland’s latest accounts, which were published on Friday, highlight the extent to which owner Ellis Short is keeping the club afloat. Saddled with a £110m debt, and with turnover barely covering the £83m wage bill, the Black Cats would be in financial meltdown if Short was not continuing to prop them up. That should not be forgotten.

Yet in any organisation, blame always has to start at the top, and Short has to carry the can for Sunderland’s crash into the Championship. The club’s dire financial position is a direct result of their owner’s calamitous decision making.

Throughout his nine-year tenure, Short has consistently promoted people to positions they are incapable of filling. There has been no over-arching plan, so each time the manager has changed, the entire structure of the club has been altered with him. One season it has been a director of football in charge, the next it is back to the manager in complete control. Sunderland’s executive management has been a complete mess, with no one addressing the escalating debts.

That would be bad enough if Short was still an engaged, energised owner. Instead, he is desperate to sell up, and unlike in previous campaigns, when he has dug deep to help secure survival, this has been the year when Short has decided enough is enough. His unwillingness to fund meaningful investment in January effectively sealed Sunderland’s fate.

DAVID MOYES

Sunderland’s manager undoubtedly inherited a difficult position when he agreed to replace Sam Allardyce last summer. However, the harsh reality is that he has subsequently made a bad situation worse. As a result, there have to be major question marks over his suitability to remain in charge in the Championship.

Why was he so negative from the word go, conceding Sunderland “were in a relegation fight” just moments after they had lost to Middlesbrough in their second game of the season? He claims he was just being honest, but his gloomy, downbeat demeanour set the tone for the rest of the campaign.

Having been praised for his doggedness and tenacity during his time at Everton, this was a very different David Moyes. Drawn, morose and seemingly lacking any kind of spark, it has felt like the Scotsman has been resigned to his fate for months. Eventually, he has dragged everyone else down with him.

He is clearly frustrated at the lack of funds that were made available to him, but he squandered what little money he was given. The £8m purchase of Papy Djilobodji was a disaster, and the decision to break Sunderland’s transfer record to sign Didier Ndong, when central midfield was arguably the one area of the field that was reasonably well covered, was badly misguided.

Then there was the panicked scramble to cobble together free transfers from his time at Everton and youngsters from his spell at Manchester United. It didn’t work, and this month’s unseemly attack on BBC reporter Vicki Sparks was merely another embarrassment to cap a completely calamitous campaign.

THE PLAYERS

You can blame any number of people when things go wrong, but ultimately a football team is only ever as good as the players who are playing for it. And this current crop at Sunderland are, in the main, a disgrace.

The lack of fight in the last month or so is perhaps the biggest indictment of their attitude. Having battled so gamely in previous seasons, Sunderland have gone down without any semblance of a fight. That says much about the character of those within the squad.

It can be argued that the quality is simply not there, but Sunderland’s wage bill should have them in the top ten in the table. Some extremely well-paid players have chronically under-performed.

Lamine Kone has been awful for the majority of the season, and his head was clearly turned by last summer’s interest from Everton. Fabio Borini talks a good game but does not deliver, Adnan Januzaj thinks he is way better than he actually is and Jack Rodwell’s career appears to be in terminal decline.

Then you have the core that has been around for the majority of the previous relegation fights - John O’Shea, Seb Larsson, Lee Cattermole – not to mention the recent arrivals such as Joleon Lescott, Steven Pienaar and Darron Gibson, who have taken their wages but contributed next to nothing. A major clear-out will be enacted this summer, and it is badly required.

THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE

Sunderland’s fate was sealed this season, but the rot set in long before the current campaign began. “I think it’s been a frustrating manager’s chair for just about any manager,” said Moyes on Saturday night. It is a refrain that has become repetitive, but it also contains a large element of truth.

In the boardroom, Roberto De Fanti and Lee Congerton contributed to the mess Sunderland find themselves in by signing players who were simply not good enough on expensive, long-term contracts. How can any club make more than 40 signings and only bank a profit on three of them?

Margaret Byrne was a shambolic chief executive, with her handling of the Adam Johnson saga dragging Sunderland’s name through the gutter and her overall running of the club seeing debts spiral.

Then there was the succession of managers who promised much, but were ultimately found wanting. Martin O’Neill, Paolo Di Canio, Gus Poyet, Dick Advocaat – they all created their own problems that eventually became unsustainable.

THE FICKLE HAND OF FATE

This has been coming, but it can also be claimed that Sunderland have been unfortunate this season. Who knows what would have happened had the Football Association not appointed Sam Allardyce last summer? ‘Big Sam’ was concerned about a potential lack of funding, but would surely have wheeled and dealed more successfully than Moyes.

Injuries have also been a major issue, although if you sign injury-prone players, you can’t really complain when they get injured. That said, the loss of Duncan Watmore and Paddy McNair was especially unfortunate, robbing Sunderland of young players who might have been able to at least provide some energy and drive.