The root of their problem is that they're always aiming to just be better than us. They have no interest in carving out their own identity, merely beating their superior neighbours.
You'll never get them to admit that though.
My thought process on them staying up is on the basis that every time they lose, no other cunting team seems to win and create a gap meaning they're always just one win away from safety.
We wouldn't have went down in the first place if we had a 'Short' tbf. He'd have lurched from solution to solution similar to what he is doing at Sunderland.