A statement of…..we’ll see.
The club statement is something of a new phenomenon in the game.
It is the most viable way to communicate to supporters on areas of mutual interest, certainly when matters are intended for immediate digestion. Alternatively, it is used for wider purposes, relaying information for media consumption and where the subsequent interrogation of a press conference can be taxing.
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At times clubs resort to a specific type, the holding statement. Those missives that create an impression of urgency or undertaking but do not actually contain anything of note.
Sunderland felt it apt in recent days to inform all and sundry that we are in closing stages of the recruitment process vis a vis the managerial vacancy. It was short yet soporific. Adding to this was the comments therein being attributed to Kyril Louis-Dreyfus.
It may well be true, the club may have confidence that the spring to summer saga of the empty dugout is about to conclude.
Personally, I have my doubts. Not regarding the imminent arrival of, as yet, person unknown. More the idea of one single recruitment process that has spanned from a time when Valentines Day flowers were losing their aroma all the way to the acquisition of after shave and Fathers Day.
In an era of stringent analysis being used before cross hairs settle on one playing target, I can't help but think the managerial pursuit has been more scattergun in comparison.
I would have defended the club in an extended period of reflection, even if I felt they ceded their play offs prospects somewhat prematurely.
We are, however, way beyond any time frame that offered such allowance.
For me they have, in all likelihood, been flying kites in the airspace of many a nation and by this stage can say 'No thanks, not with those conditions' in a host of different languages.
This column insisted at the start of this period that the more perceptive of prospects would interview Sunderland as much the club would ask questions.
That the confident and comfortably affluent would view contemptuously the idea of coming to the club with the league's biggest support, biggest stadium but an ambition that hardly reflects either.
The club will get a new manager at some point. The lure of Sunderland will be too enticing for some. The confidence, even misplaced, will exist in someone even if they look at more prestigious predecessors who tried and failed, who went not long after they came.
Putting the content of the statement to one side and homing in on the discussions that prompted it is possibly more revealing.
Who knows, maybe their observation of anger and apathy from across the support has forced them to take a different path. They may pursue those who will not answer affirmatively to every question intended to eke out such a response.
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Even I can succumb to the notion that something may change and change for the better.
Then again, the rational in me resurfaces before long and I settle on a new manager with old criteria.
When it comes, we will see a statement. Just don’t expect the manager to be one.
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