Sorry but I think there's some rewriting of history being applied here.
There was plenty of people on here & in the media who knew it was quite conceivable that we'd go straight down again and, from around late-Sept onwards, a lot were pointing out we were already in a relegation scrap.
Which brings us to January. By now he's brought in Coleman - presumably on a decent wedge - and then totally and utterly failed to back him.
Were Bain and Coleman strong enough to point out the deficiencies in the team? I don't know - but it was evident that ES had decided he was spending no more on players at this point and was quite prepared to take the risk of one of the poorest teams I have ever seen at Sunderland go down another level.
Short had decided he was playing hardball rather than giving even a few million more. For whatever reason, we couldn't get certain players in and were left (as we saw on STID) with very, very slim pickings.
The rest was sadly predictable. If he wrote off £150m it was because he accepted he'd f**ked us up in a right royal way. I suspect it was guilt and a desperation to get as far away as possible that drove that decision.