| The first two series of Sunderland ‘Til I Die were epic. Car-crash documentary television at its finest, full of real-life characters with self-awareness levels so low they would put Alan Partridge or Richard Keys to shame [EDM continues]. But as every footy-doc fan now knows, it’s never as good when the team is winning. Try watching five minutes of the ultra-drab Amazon All Or Nothing Manchester City documentary without dozing off and you’ll see the difference. Sunderland ‘Til I Die’s genius was in its frightening lack of PR airbrushing, allowing the audience the popcorn-eating pleasure of sitting back and watching things go calamitously wrong, like Dad’s Army for real. “We needed a series three to see Sunderland winning,” declared the show’s producer Gabe Turner upon the release of this latest batch of episodes, which chart the club’s successful 2021-22 season in League One. Really? Well … perhaps Sunderland fans needed that pay-off after the endless taunts from rivals up and down the country as a result of the first two series. Football moves fast though, especially in the Championship circus, so even Sunderland’s 2022 apex now seems an age ago. Alex Neil who? He was gone from the Stadium of Light just three months after winning promotion, lured by the bright lights of Stoke City (how did that go, by the way?), since which time the Black Cats have helter-skeltered through another two permanent managers: Tony Mowbray – whose sacking in December last year is increasingly hard to compute – and Michael Beale, who lasted 12 games before disembarking through those red and white revolving doors marked Do One. The final straw for some seemed to be Beale’s treatment of full-back Trai Hume, who had offered his manager a handshake after being substituted in the defeat at Mowbray’s Birmingham, only to be snubbed. Beale went into full Arsène Wenger mode afterwards and claimed he “didn’t see” Hume, despite Hume being a grown man of 6ft in height standing a yard away from him in a red-and-white kit. Someone give Specsavers a call. It didn’t wash with Wearsiders and Beale was gone 48 hours later. The unspoken problem with the Championship is there are simply too many clubs expecting success. At least 20 begin the season with aims of reaching the playoffs or better and most end up disappointed. When parachute payments expire, as they have for Cardiff, Swansea, Huddersfield and Stoke – all languishing in the lower reaches – those dreams of a Premier League return turn into flights of fancy. But with 19 of the current second-tier clubs having tasted the top flight’s riches at one stage or another, fans craving a return to the big time is totally understandable, but also unsustainable. So here we are in February. Leicester, Leeds and Southampton – with their big budgets and Premier League-ready squads – are only a minor Ipswich slowdown from an unstoppable charge straight back to the top tier. And there Sunderland are, 10th in the table, having just given it to Mike Dodds ‘til the end of the season. | 