Gus Poyet on his departure from Sunderland.
Poyet, in his column for Yahoo Sports, spoke out about his final day as Sunderland manager.
“Unlike Brendan whose situation was played out in the media, I had no real idea that I was going to lose my Sunderland job until the day it happened. We’d lost 4-0 at home to Aston Villa, with all four goals coming in the first half. The mood was bad in the stadium, the result terrible, though we were still 17th and not in the relegation zone.
“I went to work on Monday morning as usual. A few people close to me asked: ‘Are you having a meeting today?’. That was the first inkling that it wasn’t going to be a normal day. A meeting followed soon after at the training ground. Sunderland’s chief executive, secretary and solicitor were there. I was dialled into the club’s American owner, Ellis Short. There were no pleasantries, there was no need. I was told that my contract was being terminated.
“It sounds hard and brutal, but it was done in a professional way. I have no complaints and only respect for those people I worked with. I then had a private chat with Short and went to my office.”
Poyet added: “As my brain absorbed the news, I took a shower, got changed and gathered my few belongings. The players were away, but the club called the captain John O’Shea and passed me the phone to tell him. It was a convivial phone call and we wished each other well. He would tell the players. Over the next few days, some players – but not all – would text to wish me well. That’s normal; I’ve been a player too and I’m not stupid enough to think that everyone was sad to see me go.
“Like Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool, I wanted to get away and that’s exactly what I did.”
Gus Poyet back Sam Allardyce to be the next Sunderland manager.
Poyet told The Mirror: “He knows the Premier League inside out and he knows exactly what a team needs to do to stay in the Premier League.
“He has done it everywhere he has been so it’s not something new. That experience of being there for so long will definitely help.”
The Uruguayan also urged Ellis Short to plan long term and not to appoint Allardyce as yet another short-term fix to avoid relegation with the club requiring stability.
Poyet says Sunderland managers are not to blame.
Steve Bruce was the last Sunderland manager to last a full season in charge at the Stadium of Light, with the Black Cats having a tough time of it. Ellis Short has brought in four managers since Bruce left and all four have failed to cut the grade. One of those managers Gus Poyet has today, however, defended he and his fellow former Sunderland bosses.
“Now there is (another) manager leaving and it is a little bit too many,” said Poyet, who was speaking at the Leaders Sports Business Summit.
“So I think it is clear now that it is not the manager. Sometimes when a team is not working you change the manager and things go well and you can say ‘Good decision’, but when it happens four or five times, come on, be realistic.
“I don’t think you can blame Martin O’Neill, Paolo Di Canio, Gus Poyet and Dick Advocaat. There is something that is not working there. If I knew what it was I would call the chairman tomorrow but I don’t. Fortunately, it is not my job.
“But they have to look somewhere else. They need to find where to look. They need to take an appointment and stick with it whatever results come in the next two or three years.
Poyet looking to get back into the game.
The former Spurs midfielder has had 7 months out of management and has stated in his column with Yahoo Sport that he is eager to get back into the game but only if the right offer comes along.
“I returned to Sunderland three weeks after I’d left to gather my belongings from my apartment, The dust had settled, mentally I was fine. I’ve not been back since, but I only wish them well.
“I also wanted to get back into football; I love it, I’m addicted to it. When I lost my job in March I thought: ‘I’ll wait until the summer’.
“Summer came and with it a few job offers from abroad which weren’t right for me.
“By the end of pre-season I was thinking: ‘Hmm. I’m not going to be with a club at the start of the season, it’s going to have to be after a colleague loses his job’.
“And that’s how it remains. Fortunately, being out of work doesn’t mean I can’t buy food, for people working at the top level in football get well paid.
“The phone has started to ring and it’s important for me to be ready to go.”
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