"Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face." So goes the Mike Tyson quote. Admittedly, he probably wasn’t thinking about punching yourself in the face.
Sunderland AFC have a plan. Sometimes it’s even more sophisticated than that; it's a model. If we all believe in the model, the model will come good. That belief is being sorely tested after a series of slaps in the face committed by the club on its own fans.
Of course, it's nice to have a plan. For much of my time supporting Sunderland it seemed as though we didn't have any sort of plan. So, fans rightly embraced the idea that Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and Kristian Speakman had a plan for Sunderland AFC. Hope and optimism are the sustenance for all football fans. Like Ted Lasso, we want to believe but, hang on a minute...