Premier League Weekend Review: Lack of spending has put Black Cats back in trouble

A big job to do - Sunderland boss Gus Poyet

Sunderland's spectacular collapse at Southampton leaves the Black Cats back in the relegation fight they faced last season. Ralph Ellis says it shouldn't be a surprise.

The best own goal I ever saw was scored back in 1980 by a bloke called Bob Lee. I was on a local paper covering Bristol Rovers and Lee, a big lump of a centre forward, had been their star signing at the start of the season. He was the headline act in an attempt to buy the club's way into the old First Division.

None of it went as planned. The main stand burned down and they had to play home games at City's ground, where the fans refused to go. Defeat followed defeat. And in the middle of the run came an away trip to Chelsea, stuck in the second tier in the days long before Roman Abramovich.

For about 80 heroic minutes Rovers had been holding the London club at bay. And then they defended a corner, headed it away, and Lee, standing five yards outside the box, tried to hook the ball on towards the half way line. Tried was the operative word. Instead he caught it clean on the volley and it flew like a missile back into the top corner of the goal.

The best I can say for Santiago Vergini's ridiculous effort at Southampton was that it wasn't quite as spectacular. But it was getting close. And the way the Black Cats crumbled afterwards makes you wonder what happens next.

It's just over a year since Gus Poyet took over at The Stadium of Light and inherited a huge mess. Paolo Di Canio's dysfunctional reign had left a club in chaos and Poyet seemed to have taken on an impossible task in keeping them up.

Somehow he did it. But that success has rather hidden the fact that Sunderland remain a club who are fighting to survive. Even after the 8-0 drubbing that followed Vergini's spectacular oggy they are as long as 3.814/5 in the relegation market.  That looks like seriously good value.

Just down the road, Newcastle fans have been slaughtering Mike Ashley for not investing in the team during the summer. Yet while Ashley was spending nearly 40million in transfer fees, nobody seems to have noticed that Sunderland paid out barely 12.5million plus some free transfers and loans. And 10million of that went on Jack Rodwell who is a long way from being tried and tested. It makes you realise Saturday's collapse was an accident waiting to happen.

Poyet looks and acts like a promising manager, but like any boss he is only as good as his players. And there must be serious questions about the quality of what he's got. The club put their faith in former Chelsea scout Lee Congerton as their sporting director to oversee recruitment in the summer, and it's hard to argue the squad is stronger than it was last season.

Sunderland sit just a point above the drop zone at the moment. True, Southampton was only their second defeat of the campaign. But when you look at who they have played so far it should set alarm bells ringing.

They are the only team to have lost to rock bottom QPR. They managed just a 0-0 draw at Burnley. Ten games into the season they have faced only Man Utd and Tottenham from the "big seven" and next up is a home game to Arsenal in which they are 5.85/1 to collect three points.

Poyet said he was embarrassed by the way his side folded at Southampton. There could be far worse to come.

For the record, that Bristol Rovers side finished 22nd of 22 back then, and Lee's own goal was one of only three times he found the net in the entire campaign. You fear Vergini's amazing effort might be the first sign of a similar catastrophe.

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