Leicester City sitting at the top of the Premier League is something of a surprise even after just two matches.

Down at the other end there is a more familiar sight. Sunderland are again bottom and the frustrations are abundantly clear even at this embryonic stage of a 38-game campaign.

As thousands of Sunderland supporters trudged out of the Stadium of Light disgusted after seeing Dick Advocaat’s team fall three goals behind inside 58 minutes to newly-promoted Norwich City, there was a sense of history repeating itself.

The Northern Echo: Barclays Premier league match: Sunderland v Norwich City at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland. An empty looking stadium even before the final whistle. Picture: CHRIS BOOTH (35257784)
An empty looking stadium even before the final whistle on Saturday. Picture: CHRIS BOOTH

But why are Sunderland in a state of crisis at the foot of the division once more after back-to-back defeats to Leicester and the Canaries?

Gareth Barker of Sunderland fans’ popular Wise Men Say Podcast has explained to chief football writer Paul Fraser why he thinks things repeatedly go wrong on Wearside.

HOW CAN SUNDERLAND IMPROVE THE SQUAD IN TWO WEEKS?

This isn’t a new problem and after losing two games in a row it will be even worse this month. Screaming at Ellis Short to put more money in is fine, but the club already has the eighth highest wage bill in the Premier League and 67 per cent of our turnover is wages.

Ellis being a billionaire doesn’t mean he can just put money in because you can’t spend more than you can account for. They already make a loss. This whole article should be called ‘It’s a disaster’. The fact that they have had to go back to (Fabio) Borini, who I liked a lot, shows you they are scraping the barrel really. Our squad is bloated with those on a lot of money who nobody wants so we can’t get rid of them.

WHERE ARE THE FOOTBALL PEOPLE?

Ellis has clearly surrounded himself with the wrong people. He has people making decisions for him that are not making the right ones. I wouldn’t let Ellis off because he is in charge, he is not blameless.

But at the minute he has been let down. The question is what action can he take in that department? Does he need to be ruthless and make a change?

Sporting director Lee Congerton is the only football person working with Ellis. But where are the rest? Since Niall Quinn left it has been downhill. Yes, Quinn may have made some questionable decisions at times, but you couldn’t say he didn’t make the decisions with the best interests of the club at heart.

Since Niall has gone the connection that they have to the supporters has taken a real hit. This is a problem in modern football, not just at Sunderland.

A lot boils down to the message that comes out of the club, the fans are kept at arm’s length. It’s as if they want content to be controlled by the club, which doesn’t help the relationship with the fans.

I know this is a growing problem across football, but it’s not a sensible one because fans can feel more detached from ‘their’ club and it does contribute to what has happened in recent years.

TOO MUCH FOCUS ON NON-FOOTBALL TARGETS

IF you take care of matters on the pitch then the commercial side of things will come along too. I feel Sunderland have tried to focus too heavily on making the club a global asset, a commercial cash cow, rather than trying to get things right on the pitch.

Nobody will be interested in backing a loser and at the moment we are a loser. We need to get things right on the pitch first. When supporters aren’t seeing benefits from the commercial side of things then that just makes the contempt from fans greater.

The most important thing is the football and we have lost sight of that in the Premier League bubble we are in – for now!

WHO IS MAKING THE (WRONG) DECISONS?

WE are suffering because we have sacked managers regularly. We will probably be still paying Paolo Di Canio and we will probably be still paying for Gus Poyet too. The changes we have had in manager goes to show the thought process since Steve Bruce hasn’t been the clearest.

Everyone is happy with Dick Advocaat being in charge, but he was a broken man on Saturday. This is a bloke who has managed all over the world, managed at World Cups, won trophies and he was on the floor after just two games at Sunderland!

This is the lowest I have felt about Sunderland in a long time – and nobody seems to have the answer.

AND FINALLY ...

THE players should not get away with it either. They have to take a fair share of the responsibility for the mess the club finds itself in.

It looks like some are throwing the towel in because during the last two games it was basic stuff: that’s international footballers out there playing for Sunderland.

I think it says it all when you watch Sunderland on Saturday against Norwich and that throw-in comes over and nobody defends it. They fall asleep on a throw.

One thing you would never expect from Lee Cattermole is that he would fall asleep in that situation and he did. He would never do that, so what’s going on?

To catch up with what Gareth Barker and the latest Wise Men Say Podcast team follow @wisemensaypod on Twitter or download last night’s show on ITunes.