This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Regular Punter’ series, where we gather original opinions from select, passionate fans of the clubs concerned on matters surrounding their team and share them with a wider audience…

Football League World's Sunderland fan pundit Charlie Hodgson has suggested that the North East club is "desperate for a director of football" in their current situation.

The Black Cats are struggling under new boss Phil Parkinson and slumped to yet another defeat against Gillingham on the weekend.

Parkinson has now lost seven and won just two of his first 12 games in charge, a period that has also seen them knocked out of three competitions–the FA Cup, the Carabao Cup, and the EFL Trophy.

Sunderland's promotion push appears to be on the rocks at present, as they're now 11th in League One–five points back from the top six and 10 points back from the automatic promotion places.

With January less than three weeks away, it appears Parkinson may soon have an opportunity to make some additions and begin to shape the squad in his image during the winter transfer window.

Hodgson revealed that he has lost faith in the Sunderland boss but indicated that things are unlikely to get worse if the club back him in the transfer window.

He said: "I am slightly concerned about trusting Parkinson with our transfer budget but he can’t really make things much worse than they already are.

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"Suggestions are that our budget is quite small, so I don’t think many people could do a particularly good job."

He added: "Personally, I think the club is desperate for a director of football in its current situation."

The Black Cats face a difficult test on the weekend as they welcome fourth-place Blackpool to the Stadium of Light.