Say goodbye to Sunderland, who have been officially relegated from the Premier League

You’d be forgiven for thinking it had been confirmed months ago, but Sunderland have finally been relegated from the Premier League. A late goal by Joshua King gave Bournemouth a 1-0 victory on Saturday, and that coupled with a Hull City draw sealed Sunderland’s fate.

Southampton nearly saved Hull for another week, but Tigers goalkeeper Eldin Jakupović saved a penalty attempt from Dusan Tadić, saving a point for Hull and sending Sunderland to the Championship.

There have been worse Premier League campaigns. Sunderland, with 21 points from 34 games, have already surpassed their own effort of 2005-06, when they finished dead last with just 15. They have also passed the Derby County side of 2007-08, who hold the all-time record with a mere 11. But irrespective of the numbers, there can’t have been many campaigns so ploddingly and inescapably miserable.

The temptation is to approach their relegation as the latest chapter in Concerning Ambition; or, The Terrible Tragedy of David William Moyes. Ever since the former Everton manager took charge of Manchester United, his professional life has unfolded as one terrible warning about the horrors that can befall a man when all his dreams come true.

He doesn’t help himself, of course. In a business as prone to giddiness and hype as football, the urge to be sensible is, well, sensible. But a constant refrain in Moyes’ management has been the aggressive, occasionally ludicrous depression of expectations.

In the summer, he announced that the club couldn’t attract the quality of player he was accustomed to, then just two games into the season he warned that Sunderland would be fighting relegation. Come January, he announced that the club couldn’t afford decent reinforcements, which must have sounded great to those players that arrived.

There is a constant theme of blame-shifting resignation that rankles fans and amuses neutrals. And beyond all that, he seems to be only capable of signing players he’s worked with before, however far past their best they might be. He happily acknowledges that sometimes he picks his midfield on the basis of their Britishness, as though it were a quality somehow comparable with pace or technique. He makes jokes about hitting women. He … well, that will probably do.

But there’s more to this than Moyes. Sunderland have been flapping around the relegation zone for the last few seasons, managing each time to just about cling on to their Premier League status. That’s not a sustainable position. They’ve chewed through a manager a year since 2010, and only the departure of Sam Allardyce for his ill-fated England adventure was unfortunate. The rest arrived, put out the previous man’s fire, started their own, and left again.

And their squad reflects this constant churn, as manager after manager buys the players he wants, then departs and leaves them behind for the next man along to replace. There’s an almost geological quality to the roster: to look down the list is to read a fossil record of panic layered upon panic, improvisation layered upon making do. Filter all that through the club’s parlous financial situation, and even without Moyes, it’s a mess.

This perhaps explains reports that claim Moyes will stay beyond relegation and will be given the chance to bring Sunderland back into the Premier League. Stability, for a club so long without it, is a seductive notion. The question then becomes: Is Moyes the man to bring them back up? It’s been a long time since he took Preston from the third tier to the second, then almost into the first.

In the mind of owner Ellis Short, this all probably unfolds along the following lines. Moyes, out of the spotlight a little, is able to build a team in the fashion of his Everton side: defensively well-organised, hard-working, admirably committed, and relatively cheap. This team then returns to the Premier League in relatively short order and is quickly able to reestablish itself. Moyes stays for another 15 years, and everything works out nicely.

But it doesn’t take an excess of cynicism to predict something far bleaker. A summer of fan dissatisfaction; the departure of Jordan Pickford and Jermain Defoe; a baleful Moyes telling everybody that he doesn’t have any money, that the Championship is a difficult league, that he didn’t ask to be born. A failed bid for Marouane Fellaini; a successful bid for whatever’s left of Phil Jagielka. A poor start, an ultimatum, and a parting of the ways.

Or he could jump ship as soon as seems polite. Either way, the stench of decay hangs heavy around both club and manager, and it might be a while before the Premier League welcomes either again.