David Moyes has called for a united front as he attempts to drag Sunderland out of another tailspin, warning that sacking managers in the past has not solved the club's lingering problems.
The 53-year-old Scot is still awaiting his first Premier League win as Black Cats boss nine games into his reign and finds himself rooted to the foot of the table, as have so many of his predecessors in recent years.
However, he believes the departures of Roy Keane, Ricky Sbragia, Steve Bruce, Martin O'Neill, Paolo Di Canio, Gus Poyet, Dick Advocaat and Sam Allardyce inside the last eight years illustrates that there is something more fundamental than simply the performance of the man in the hot-seat in Sunderland's failings.