Some are born medicore, some assume medicority, while others have mediocrity thrust upon them.
David Moyes did a fairly good job of ticking all three of the above boxes at Manchester United and Real Sociedad (he left the latter in the same place with the same points total as he took over). He's now back at Sunderland, where he has embraced the prospect of a relegation battle with the relish of a man who has been scarred by the repercussions of ambition at United:
It has been the same for the last few years and I think it will be again [a relegation battle] - you can't argue with the facts. People are hoping for it to dramatically change, but it can't.
"We hope that things will improve. Defensively, we have a young right-back and centre-half, but they need a lot of work and schooling.
With the transfer deadline ticking and Sky Sports News presenters getting louder, Moyes is desperately trying to reinforce his squad ahead of the long slog ahead. Sadly, he has been hoisted in that regard by the fact that, nobody, it seems, wants to come and join him.
The last couple of days have brought a ceaseless slew of stories along Sky's Yellow Ticker of Doom regarding another player who has rejected the opportunity to work with Moyes in the north-east.
The most noticeable in the past few days was the line "Joe Hart joins Torino despite interest from Sunderland".
There have been loads more. Dominic King of the Daily Mail reports today that Moyes has been knocked back in an approach for both Southampton's Jay Rodriguez and Liverpool's Danny Ings. He wished to sign both on loan, but Liverpool have rejected al offers for Ings (they were EIGHT in total) and Southampton have decided against allowing Rodriguez to leave on loan. To add insult to injury, Rodriguez scored against Sunderland at the weekend.
Elsewhere, the club have allowed midfielder Jermaine Lens leave in the assumption they would draft in a replacement. This has proved a dangerous assumption: Vincente Iborra was due to join Sunderland: a fee of £7.7 million had been agreed, before Sevilla pulled the plug on the deal at the last minute.
Weird situation with Iborra. It was all agreed between clubs and player and Sunderland, incl. plane tickets. After Villarreal game... 1/2
— Guillem Balague (@GuillemBalague) August 30, 2016
Here it is in comedic form on the Sky Sports website:
Moyes had also targeted Ryan Mason from Spurs, but in further proof that David Moyes is life's punchline, today he joined Hull.
Ryan Mason admits to @TimThornton3 Sunderland were interested in him but his gut feeling took him to Hull. @SkySportsNewsHQ
— Keith Downie (@SkySports_Keith) August 30, 2016
That's five rejections in a day. Ouch.
The Black Cats are also struggling to tie up a permanent deal for Frenchman Yann M'Vila from Rubin Kazan.
In better news, Sunderland have managed to stave off Everton's interest in Lamine Kone and have signed ex-Liverpool full-back Javi Manquillo along with United trio Adnan Januzaj, Donald Love and Paddy McNair.
