Fenerbahce and former Sunderland AFC manager Dick Advocaat has said that his former club need to be relegated in order to rebuild.

For the best

The Dutch manager has been one part of what has been a vicious cycle at the Stadium of Light, with Advocaat been the fourth manager of six in the last six years.

The 69-year-old did well to keep the Black Cats in the top-flight in the 2014-15 season, before been replaced by Sam Allardyce last season, with Allardyce also keeping the side in the Premier League.

David Moyes is now leading the line on Wearside, with the Scotsman struggling as he looks to make it fifth time lucky for the Black Cats, but Advovcaat believes that the side need to be relegated to rebuild their side.

"Maybe it's better to go down," Advocaat told The Mirror. "To build a new team like Newcastle who have a great club,a great fan-base and a great stadium just like Sunderland."

"Sunderland simply cannot go on this way because other clubs invest in the team," the Dutchman admitted. "They spend money on good players and, if you don't do it, you are in trouble because there's too much quality elsewhere in the Premier League to expect to survive every year."

Advocaat added: "You can only define Sunderland's problems if they spend the same as other clubs and they don't do that."

Luck will run out

Advocaat ended his role at the Stadium of Light at the beginning of October last year, after a 2-2 draw with West Ham, and the Dutchman admitted that the club's luck will run out.

"I said that well over a year ago and this is the reason I left after eight games when I decided to come back at the start of last season." he said.

"I had no chance, I had that feeling. OK, Sam Allardyce came in after me and he did a great job," he admitted. "But it went down to the wire, to the last two games of the season."

Advocaat concluded: "You can't do that every season, it's just not possible -- because, sooner or later, your luck is going to run out."

Sunderland AFC will take on Hull City at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, November 19 with kick-off at 3pm BST.

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About the author
Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.