I've always regarded them as genuinely just an insignificant club. Their purpose seems to be float around not doing much and then when they get bored of that, get relegated.
There's very, very little appeal to Sunderland as a whole and I have no idea how they're actually going to overcome that, because that is the main barrier preventing any sort of progress.
That's a bit harsh. Think the same could be said of Swansea 5 years ago.
Swansea don't have mackems. That's the dealbreaker.