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Sunderland are on a slippery slope at the moment and as anyone who has been watching the Winter Olympics will know that is always a dangerous place to be.

But this isn't the luge, it isn't even ski-ing, and it certainly isn't curling, which appears to be the only winter sport played by the British with any sort of real gusto - bowls on ice.

It's dull, though, isn' it? I mean, I'm not saying I haven't sat in bed watching it until the early hours because I have, it's still sport and it's on terrestrial television so of course I have, but give me someone sliding down an ice tunnel on a tea tray any day of the week.

Sunderland's position remains a worrying one, but Steve Bruce will be grateful for small mercies because it hasn't actually got any worse since the frustration of another home point against Wigan and the agonising draw at Portsmouth.

Well, it'll make him feel better for a bit because a trip to the Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal this weekend is hardly the sort of fixture you want when you haven't won a league game in more than three months.

In fact, given the 7-2 thrashing at the hands of Chelsea on their last visit to the capital, it is a trip some people might be approaching with an impending sense of doom.

I wouldn't say I was an expert on women's football and I'm still puzzled on a regular basis by matters relating to members of the opposite sex, as my wife would wholeheartedly concur if she ever bothered to read this blog.

I've never seen Sunderland or Newcastle United's female teams play, although I did watch a bit of the Women's World Cup and I did interview England's third choice goalkeeper a couple of years ago.

But I don't need to be an expert or an aficionado on the fairer sex's football exploits to realise the decision not to have a North East team in the Football Association's new Super League is a disgrace.

My first emotion at the close of the transfer window is one of relief because the whole thing is just a month long hype fest, artificial excitement for armchair fans sitting in their pants in front of Sky Sports News.

Come on, let's be honest, the only people who enjoy the transfer window is Sky Sports News. It is tailor made for a 24 hour news channel because it actually gives them something to talk about all day rather than just filling time with the same bits of news on a 20 minute loop. It makes them look important and exciting.

I've always liked Kenwyne Jones, both as a player and a person, but he has lost his way, head turned by interest from rival clubs, head messed up by Steve Bruce's handling of the speculation which surrounds him.

The whole sorry saga is a shambles. Jones has been a shadow of the player he should be and at times he has looked as though he is going through the motions as a Sunderland player.

That isn't acceptable in any way shape or form, but he is reacting to events going on around him. A confused sulk would be the best way to describe his behaviour.

One down, two to go. I'm pleased Danny Simpson has seen sense and decided a permanent move to Newcastle was the best thing to do, but as ever, whenever one player signs the focus immediately switches to the next one.

But who is the next one? It must have irritated Newcastle fans to read on Thursday morning that Sunderland are on the verge of signing a player who has already turned down a move to United this month.

If Matthew Kilgallon does sign for the Black Cats it will say one of two things. Sunderland have paid over the odds for a player who will be a free agent in the summer, or Newcastle no longer have the muscle to compete with their local rivals in the transfer market.

When people like me write it is far too early to talk of a crisis, it normally means it is far too early talk about a crisis but things had better start improving quickly or it will be time to man the panic stations!

That is exactly the situation Sunderland and Steve Bruce find themselves in after the humiliating 7-2 defeat at Chelsea at the weekend, a scoreline which could easily have read 10-2 - or worse - and one which almost completely banishes the memory of that encouraging start to the season.

The writing has been on the wall for months. Even if Kenwyne Jones does not leave for Birmingham City during this January transfer window he will only be postponing his Sunderland departure.

Steve Bruce doesn't get Jones, he doesn't understand him and he struggles to accept it. What I mean is, Bruce likes him as player, or rather he likes the idea of him as a player, but he cannot work out what makes him tick and therefore he does not know how to get the best out of him. It infuriates him.

I was at the North East Football Writers' annual awards bash last weekend to see Danny Collins and Adam Johnson pick up their trophies as 2009 player and young player of the year as voted for by the members of her majesty's press.

Well done to them, of course, but it reminded me, as we watched a video compilation of the year's supposed highlights, that had more in common with a sickening video nasty, this year has been a truly torturous one.

Sunderland have every right to be proud of their new found status as the scourge of the Big Four, but are the Black Cats just part of a wider trend which is finally challenging the pre-eminence of the Champions League clique?

While Steve Bruce's side have taken an impressive seven points from their four games against Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United so far this season, they are not the only ones who have given them a fright.