Former Sunderland manager Dick Advocate has today spoken about his unfortunate departure from Wearside following Saturday’s 2-2 draw with West Ham United. The Dutchman spoke to Studio Voetbal in his native Holland following his departure and just like his time at the club, acted with dignity and class.
Advocaat spoke about his time on Wearside, describing it as a ‘great experience’ but admitted that he did not feel like himself as his side struggled in the relegation scrap this season.
“I already made my decision last week, but the club asked me to do the match against West Ham and I really wanted to finish this in style,” Advocaat said.
“The struggle against relegation is not my cup of tea. I think it was time for someone else to take over at Sunderland. I became negative and that didn’t feel like myself.”
The Dutchman spoke of his admiration for the club and had nothing but good things to say about the fans and his time in the north east.
“No, no, no. Sunderland is in my view a very beautiful club. What I have seen no one can take away from me and I would not have missed this for anything. Even on Saturday there were three or four loud chants for me. The fans supported me until the last day, although they did not know I was leaving,” said the Dutchman.
Advocaat admitted that his team were not good enough and was critical of the amount of money available to improve the squad over the summer.
“I don’t regret signing my new contract, because it was a great experience.Our squad was simply not good enough. The club knew that we had to strengthen ourselves, but the chairman never told me how much we could spend.”
Sunderland must now look for a successor to the Dutchman ahead of their away clash to West Bromwich Albion next week. Names such as Sam Allardyce, Brendan Rodgers and Sean Dyche have been mentioned as potential candidates.
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