The travails of Morrisons have cost chief executive Dalton Philips his job and some are asking whether M&S chief Marc Bolland may be next to go.

Marc Bolland, who of course won his present role on the back of improvements he’d made at Morrisons, is taking M&S on a journey, as he likes to describe it, to become an international, multichannel leader.

On two of those counts the Christmas performance was a miss. International difficulties were understandable – there isn’t much you can do about performance in places such as the Ukraine which are riven by conflict.

However M&S’s online performance was an unalloyed disappointment. It’s almost a year since the retailer unveiled its overhauled site. After some teething problems the ambition was that it would be on form for Christmas, but that hope proved forlorn.

The Castle Donington ecommerce distribution centre could not take the strain as demand soared, stoked by consumer excitement about Black Friday.

Bolland has previously said that M&S’s website, rather than the bricks-and-mortar branch at Marble Arch, must be the retailer’s flagship as shopping habits shift. The seasonal showing indicates that is simply not the case at the moment.

Add to that the fundamental concern – a continued sales decline at M&S’s key general merchandise category - and it’s easy to see why pressure may build on Bolland.

This week Standard Life Investments head of equities David Cumming told Radio 4’s Today programme: “In terms of Marks & Spencer they had another disappointing set of figures and I suppose Marc Bolland has been there for some time, almost five years, so I think the chairman and the senior independent director are probably asking themselves whether his scorecard is acceptable, and they should be asking M&S shareholders the same question.”

The big win for M&S over Christmas was that, despite the sales slide, margin was preserved. That’s extremely welcome – the bottom line isn’t called that for nothing.

But the challenge for Bolland, as he is no doubt keenly aware, is to get the top line moving in the right direction too.

With the exception of WHSmith, profitability at the expense of sales has seldom proved sustainable in the long term.