Sunderland

[Mantis]

Sunderland seem to have been in a state of crisis/near-crisis since 2011. I remember they got off to that really good start in 10/11 season and were top 6 in the new year after they beat us 1-0 at VP but it seems to have been pretty much down hill since then bar a good couple of months when O'Neill first came in.

 

Then again, I guess you could say the same thing about us since O'Neill walked out, but at least things seem to have stabalised now and we have a settled manager with a settled team. I don't envy the next Sunderland manager as he'll basically be working with O'Neill and Di Canio's squad.

Edited September 23, 2013 by Mantis

[Isa]

sadly, a very smart move. Should never have been hired in the first place. Relegation spots just lost an automatic pick though

He did keep them up last season so ultimately fulfilled his short-term purpose. Probably the right decision sacking him this early though. Clearly too much of a risk keeping him now his initial impact has worn off (thanks to us).

Yeah but you could say McClueless fufilled his short-term purpose of keeping Villa up. At least we had the decency of showing him the door, and not giving him the thick end of 20 million to spunk on 14 players.

I think the ultimate plan with McLeish was for him to keep us as in mid-table mediocrity for a while whilst the wage-bill was being reduced.

Ultimately at Sunderland it was very much a 'lesser of two evils' scenario for them last season. Stick with MON and almost certainly go down. Or bring in a character like Di Canio who has more chance of lifting the team and inspiring them to the few results needed to keep them up even though he was ultimately a risk in the long-term. He was probably also hired with the thinking that he'd be better placed to take them back-up should they go down given his time at Swindon. Once he fulfilled his brief of keeping them up, it was only right they backed him. At least they've acted early I suppose and I still believe they have a decent chance of staying up with the right appointment.

The biggest mistake made by Short was sacking Bruce when he did and believing the MON hype. They certainly wouldn't be in this mess had they stuck with Bruce in my opinion.

[Richard]

Gutted

me too. Mcleish please

[Guest av1]

Gutted

me too. Mcleish please

Sadly, I think even Mcleish would be an improvement on di idiot. Edited September 23, 2013 by av1

[Richard]

Gutted

me too. Mcleish please

Sadly, I think even Mcleish would be an improvement on di idiot.

well to be fair it would be hard to find someone worse. Mcleish is as good as you can get to being an improvement but only just

[maqroll]

It'll be DiMatteo

 

Sad that the DiCanio Comedy Revue has be cut short so soon.

[Mark8691]

Shame they chucked him early on, I was so enjoying the circus. Just comedy entertainment and was looking forward to seeing Sunderland go down.

 

Funny listening to this ego talk about challenging at the top. He wont even be seeing the bottom of the premier league again now.  Everyone knew it was a disaster waiting to happen. Still at least he shocked the players from the comatose that was MON's relegation trip. Short term i thought PDC would shock the players and barely keep them up, but i knew he wouldn't be there for even a year.

[Panto_Villan]

Disappointing. How are they going to entertain their fans now?

[AVFCforever1991]

Disappointing. How are they going to entertain their fans now?

 

McLeish is available and he plays a brilliant brand of football.

[villa89]

 They have an ok team there.  A half-decent manager should get a comfortable mid-table finish from them.

 

They don't have ok team though. It's littered with poor players. Whoever takes over is is for a relegation scrap and a nightmare trying to sort out the mess of a squad di Canio left behind him.

[tonyh29]

Poyet anyone ?

[Guest av1]

Roberto Di Matteo

94 vote(s)39.2%

Eddie Howe

10 vote(s)4.2%

Gus Poyet

20 vote(s)8.3%

Kevin Ball

6 vote(s)2.5%

Roy Keane

3 vote(s)1.3%

Michael Appleton

0 vote(s)0.0%

Alex McLeish

1 vote(s)0.4%

Steve McLaren

10 vote(s)4.2%

Alan Curbishley

4 vote(s)1.7%

A.N.Other

96 vote(s)40.0%l

From the Sunderland board's.

[Zatman]

Sunderland have been badly run last 5 years. Keane, Bruce, MON and PDC has seen a huge turnover in players which is a joke. no stability at all though I think the players there are getting away with it. 

 

Johnson, O'Shea, Cattermole, Brown are on ridiculous salaries and are absolute garbage, the Adam Johnson hype when at City was probably the biggest load of rubbish ive ever heard

[Zatman]

I think most of the discontent is resolved by the jumped up little fascist getting the boot. They have an ok team there. Not great, but better than the likes of Palace. A half-decent manager should get a comfortable mid-table finish from them.

 

However, I'd give anything to see McLeish get the job. That'd make my decade.

On another note, why do sunderland have a 'head coach' rather than a manager?

 

they went for the european method and have a sporting director as well. think AVB might have similar title

[Zatman]

 

I can't believe there are 14 new players. Jesus. Basically what Lambert has tried to do with us (overhaul the whole squad) over a period of 2 seasons, but they tried to do it in 2 months.

 

It was never going to work, Altidore looks a shadow of the player I thought he had become in Holland too.

 

McLeish, as I said earlier on, I wouldn't wish him to manage my worst enemy. Hope for them he isn't in the frame.

I want McLeish to get it - victory over Sunderland with him as their manager would be so sweet, especially if said victory was achieved by way of attacking football.

 

 

we wouldnt be able to break down his 11 men behind the ball tactic

[Keyblade]

LOL who the hell voted for McLeish?

[Zatman]

McLeish himself. has a lot of spare time now so probably hangs around on forums.

 

I think a McLeish/Steve Kean dream team is required

[Guest av1]

McLeish himself. has a lot of spare time now so probably hangs around on forums.

 

I think a McLeish/Steve Kean dream team is required

One guy wrote 'and dream team of pulis and Mcliesh and I'll give up football'

Another wrote 'looking at that maybe we should have a poll for the manager that follows the next guy that gets sacked at xmas'

Poor sods ;-)

[samjp26]

Sunderland have been badly run last 5 years. Keane, Bruce, MON and PDC has seen a huge turnover in players which is a joke. no stability at all though I think the players there are getting away with it.

Johnson, O'Shea, Cattermole, Brown are on ridiculous salaries and are absolute garbage, the Adam Johnson hype when at City was probably the biggest load of rubbish ive ever heard

Johnson reminds me of another Man City reject, Irish fella that looks like a cue ball.

[TrentVilla]

There is so much about Sunderland that reminds me of Villa. Both are large clubs (not the same size obviously with very good stadiums and fan base but both clubs have for decades under achieved and failed to realise their true potential.

 

Both are owned by absentee and it would seem fairly clueless chairman (in football terms) from the US and both have spunked huge amounts of cash only the make little or no improvement.

 

Sunderland repeated our mistake with O'Neill much to their cost, then like us they opted for the promise of continental flair and an eye for talent after the much discussed limited and expensive domestic preference of O'Neill. We went for past its prime experience in the form of Houllier and they went for the other extreme in Di Canio both are arrogant in their own way and prone to putting players backs up, with questionable judgement on players.Neither should ever have been appointed and both were doomed to failure and it took no hindsight to make that judgement, most football fans would have predicted the outcomes.

 

Only the two people running the clubs don't know enough about the game and seemingly don't want to listen to those who do.

 

So what next for Sunderland? Well if they keep repeating our mistakes and failing to learn from our example, then they will lurch in the same direction we did when we turned first to McLaren and then McLeish.

 

They will opt for someone experienced, someone British and someone who will be deemed a safe pair of hands. Someone not likely to rock the boat and who will be able to get the existing players on side and won't want to spend lots of money and rip everything up and start again. If they hadn't already tried Mick McCarthy he would probably be a shoe in.

 

There are some good candidates out there like Poyet or perhaps even Zola but they will probably represent too much of a risk to a chairman desperate to get it right this time. So a safe bet is what they will go for and it will likely fail again and they will end up with their version of McLeish, hell they might even get McLeish.

 

I suspect though it will be someone like McLaren or Di Matteo because of the Italian connection and the fact they might be able to save some cash replacing all the backroom team.

 

Maybe in a couple more years they will try and find someone to take the sort of approach Lambert has with us.