NIALL Quinn wrote in his autobiography nine years ago: “I learned my trade at Arsenal, became a footballer at Manchester City, but Sunderland got under my skin. I love Sunderland.”

But how long that love will last now remains to be seen. Quinn’s sidelining from his position as club chairman to a role where he will be heading up Sunderland’s international development brings more questions than answers which will unfold as the season progresses.

With owner Ellis Short now assuming Quinn’s old position, it is assumed that the quiet man sitting on the throne of power will now put himself in the spotlight as the face of Sunderland – a role the media-friendly Quinn took to like a duck to water.

Where this all leaves manager Steve Bruce, only the future will tell us, but given the Black Cats boss has come under fire of late for the club’s poor start to the season, the Orwellian expression that ‘Big Brother is watching you’ strikes a chord with the current situation.

It is evident that while Bruce has not quite lost an ally at boardroom level, he has definitely been put in a place where any intervention on the manager’s behalf may not be heard. Bruce has commented on how fortunate he was to be manager of a club which has a football person in Quinn in charge – who fully comprehends the various facets of the game, will weigh up the factors in assessing how both manager and team are doing and express a considered and expert opinion to others in the boardroom in giving them a full picture as to what is going on at pitch level. Compared with other managers in the United Kingdom who face countless battles in trying to explain to their bosses whose own playing and coaching experience is usually non-existent, Bruce was indeed lucky to have, in Quinn, someone who knew the score. Short, since taking a controlling interest in Sunderland back in 2008, has largely stayed in the background while Quinn has put himself forward as the ‘face’ of the Stadium of Light club as well as serving as the main link between owner and manager.

Now that link has been severed with Bruce now answerable directly to Short with the protection of Quinn moved to one side and one feels the manager may have to take longer than usual in explaining how the realities of what happens on the pitch and training ground relate to league position – something that would, until yesterday, have been Quinn’s remit.

It remains to be seen how hands-on Short will be.

Will he be the man Bruce reports to after a match or will he appoint a new managing director in the mould of what rivals Newcastle United have in Derek Llambias to be his mediator?