This feels strange. The unfamiliar feeling of closing the season out with it looking increasingly likely there will be little of value to play for. 

The growing tendency to peruse the football lexicon and, somewhat prematurely in the context of Sunderland, reintroduce the idea of mathematical impossibility. By the time these words and your eyes meet it may well be that automatic promotion, over to all intents and purpose since the trees and their leaves began to part company, has went from the improbable to impossible. 

Yes, points and pride can be sought and secured but it is rare that we get to March without an automatic promotion push or relegation fight in many a Mackem mind. 

It may not be a bad thing. The additional time may allow for greater focus behind the scenes on what the summer should look like - player recruitment and, more importantly, who arrives next on Wearside tasked with navigating the direction of the club in a managerial capacity.

Perhaps the most intriguing candidate is Will Still. The circumstances around him haven't changed that much. The young Reims manager has impressed in a career still very much in its infancy but it may be that he feels the ceiling has been reached insofar as how high he can take the relatively small, but historic, French club. 

That, however, does not necessarily remove the obstacles that could see him leave the champagne capital for what some may contend to be the less salubrious surroundings of beer and butties. 

A lack of agreement in compensation between the clubs was well documented prior to the appointment of Michael Beale. Less so was whether Still would gladly trade the six time league winners in Red and White in the North East of France for the six time league winners in Red and White in the North East of England, certainly if the conditions stipulate that sourcing new players should revolve around Premier League 2 or the European equivalents. 

It is the latter point that has the potential to stymie the type of appointment that would allow for supporters to approach next season with confidence. Whilst very few expect Kyril Louis Dreyfus to become lavish in expenditure, there is a hope that evidence should inform him to be sceptical about such a reliance on youth and, as a result, dining at the top table.

In short, you can have young players, you could have Old Trafford, but probably not both. 

For the majority shareholder it may be that what transpires as of now until the end of August is key in being viewed favourably in the court of public opinion. The year started badly, a stadium partly black and white and an owner red all over. Things have barely improved since and it is never enough for a primary financial figure to simply express their wishes. He may want to be assessed through warm words but he will be judged by his actions.

It is unfair for anyone to assert that the verdict on his ownership is solely around making the journey from ITV4 to the BBC One on a Saturday night, but the supporters are not being unjust in expecting those in such a position to go beyond intentions and to do their utmost to make it happen.

He desperately needs a summer of promise to follow the winter of discontent.