Can Sunderland save their season? Who would want to join a club who are constantly battling to stay in the Premier league and show no signs of progression over the past four seasons? Is anyone up for a challenge or will Sunderland resort to appointing a Championship manager such as Sean Dyche or Nigel Pearson to try and rebuild in the Championship, if relegation were to happen? Why don’t they try something bold and exciting, something we done when Niall Quinn brought in Roy Keane to shake up not only the club and region but also the players who were not performing at that particular time in the club’s history. Why don’t they try and persuade Patrick Vieira to become the next Sunderland manager, what have we got to lose by trying something ambitious and ultimately could save the club from free falling through the divisions? Let’s look at the pros and cons of why bringing in the ex-French midfielder could be a step in the right direction for Sunderland AFC…
As we have seen already in recent years, young ex-players who make the move from playing to managing a team has worked in certain examples. Roy Keane is the main comparison to Vieira with their leadership on the field, their winning mentality and their presence to make people sit up and take notice. Granted, Keane’s last few months at the Stadium of Light were tough but he touched on certain issues that are still evident today with what is wrong with the club.
Currently in the Premiership there is Eddie Howe and Alex Neil for Bournemouth and Norwich City respectively who are doing their best to prove to the everyone that they have what it takes to work on a tight budget and keep their teams in the top flight for next season. Howe, who used to play for Bournemouth has started the season very well and managed to pick up some valuable points with Norwich also ticking along nicely. Maybe ex-players becoming managers is something we will start seeing more frequently and they can draw upon Howe and Neil’s experiences before they start their own battles with new clubs.
In the words of a former teammate to Vieira, Martin Keown, he told The Daily Mail: “I met him for a tour of City’s new training ground recently and the respect he commands at that club is incredible. He has an aura about him — when he enters a room, people pay attention.”
This is something Keane brought to the Sunderland dressing room when he first joined, the players took notice and knew who was boss from the first minute and with a lot of blame being pushed more towards the players who have seen eight managers in seven years they need someone to come in and show respect like Martin O’Neill but also be willing to give them a bollocking when they under perform like Di Canio. Vieira seems to have both styles from reading interviews where he can be level headed and calm under pressure but also can explode into anger when he sees something he doesn’t like. This is a perfect mix of what we may require between now and May 2016.
Another reason why bringing Patrick Vieira in from Manchester City could be a masterstroke from Ellis Short would be his winning mentality. Vieira like Keane does not know how to lose, he makes sure he is on the winning side no matter what and this showed on the field, but it will be one thing he carries into management at the front of his list of abilities.
Sunderland need a win more than anything and with Vieira in control he will demand three points from the first game to instill confidence into a beleaguered bunch of underperformers so far. The ex-Arsenal captain will be encouraged by the way we played in the first half with eleven men against West Ham and will use these moments to try and push a full 90 minutes out of the players.
He will bring a new training regime with contacts from across the world to help strengthen the Sunderland team and teach them new ways and methods to get three points on a weekend,something we simply can’t do at present.
One main attribute that Vieira will bring to Sunderland AFC will be his willingness to develop and mature the youth within our promising Academy. With Patrick working as the Head of Elite Development at Manchester City he is already working with some of the best talent the country has to offer and this will benefit the club as a whole if he joined as manager. He could develop Pickford, Robson, Beadling, Gooch, Watmore and many more by using his skills he has picked up already at City. The main problem we have seen so far is the reserves and U21’s seem to be moving forward and winning games whereas the first team seem to be moving backwards. Vieira could identify this and merge the two teams together more by balancing experience with youth and raw talent.
There will obviously be downsides to trying to appoint Patrick Vieira such as whether he would want to move to Sunderland for his first real job in management, will he prefer an easier first job to embed his own style and learn from his mistakes? Possibly, but Keane managed to learn the ropes very quickly and Vieira will be conscious of what went wrong before and he will try to avoid the same things occurring again.
Would he stay if the club got relegated and could he hack it in a tougher division, my thoughts would be yes and he may enjoy the physicality of the Championship and it gives him more time to prepare for the top flight by staying longer on Wearside.
One thing for certain is Sunderland would be foolish to not approach Vieira if he was willing to discuss a potential deal as the positives outweigh the negatives for him to join the club. It would be a bold and exciting move and one that would get the fans hopeful again for an improved season, it can’t get much worse, can it?
