Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn is to investigate how the club have gone from challenging for a European place to a fight against the drop following a run of seven defeats in eight games. Nor does the future offer any hope as the Black Cats have four of their remaining six fixtures coming against sides fighting for their top-flight lives.
Boss Steve Bruce continues to enjoy the backing of Quinn and owner Ellis Short despite some fans starting to voice their disapproval, but the chairman knows questions need to be asked and insists they will be.
Quinn told the Sunderland Echo: "Once we get through this, we will look back to see what might have been done differently, how we might have improved things.
"And of course in the summer, we will evaluate things such as the catastrophic injury problems we have had to contend with and look at our transfer policy collectively.
"Just like last season, we will sit down with Steve, take stock and work out together how we improve on this season and how we continue the building process to make us stronger and better in the following season."
But Quinn, like Bruce, remains confident the trend will be reversed.
Quinn said: "I know that everyone inside the club, from top to bottom, is trying to do their very best to help things turn around again, and all that counts at the moment is that we concentrate on picking up points for our final few games.
"Everyone at the club is fully committed and focused on finishing as high up the Premier League table as we possibly can, and hopefully things will finally start going our way over the next few weeks."
