---
title: "When’s it all going to change?"
canonical: "https://readsunderland.com/2015/10/08/whens-going-change/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Chris Sparks"
section: "Articles"
published: "2015-10-08T10:31:22Z"
modified: "2015-10-08T10:31:22Z"
---

# When’s it all going to change?

The sun rises in the morning, sets in the evening, what goes up must come down and Sunderland beat Newcastle, sack their manager mid-season and scrape Premier League survival.

The above have become staple laws around which our existence revolves. Although, scraping Premier League survival again looks a mere pipe dream as things stand.

Once again, we find ourselves deep into October without a single league victory. Once again the streets and pubs of Wearside are full of people scratching their heads looking for people to blame for the stuttering start.

Is “something wrong” within the club as has been suggested by a succession of managers? Do the players not care? Do we just continue to appoint the wrong managers? Do the problems start at boardroom level, or a combination of all these factors?

Despite the continuity of our situation on the pitch, it is the lack of continuity off it which has led to years of frustration and underachievement.

When Martin O’Neil was sacked in March 2013, Sunderland went in a radically new direction. Gone were the days of the traditional manager who oversaw every aspect of the club and a continental model was implemented with a head coach overseeing the pitch affairs, complementing a director of football.

![Tom Dulat/Getty Images Sport](https://readsunderland.com/https://media.readsunderland.com/readsunderland/2015/10/151108734.jpg)

Although, many British football supporters remain sceptical of this system, in theory, there is nothing wrong with it. The 24/7 nature of football means it is unrealistic to expect one man to take on the burden of all the daily rigmarole of running a football club. If implemented correctly it is a very desirable blueprint.

Swansea and Southampton, in particular, have enjoyed success in recent years with the system. When a manager has been sacked, instead of simply appointing the biggest “name” they have pragmatically appointed someone who fits into the ideology of the club. Similarly, transfers are conducted with the style of play in mind to fit a system as opposed to signing players simply because they are available.

Namely, these clubs have an identity which is the basis from which the club revolves. No matter how many managers they go through or how many players leave, the blueprint remains.

At Sunderland however, it seems as though the club are compiling a guide on how not to utilise a director of football. When you introduce a model with the purpose of creating stability, appointing Paolo Di Canio is the equivalent of pouring petrol on a fire in the hope of extinguishing it.

Sadly, this error of judgement was just the tip of the iceberg. The man tasked with working alongside Di Canio was former agent Roberto Di Fanti; a man who’s the only experience of player recruitment was negotiating contracts.

Essentially, Sunderland had two novices charged with changing the direction of the entire club. Inevitably, despite the club’s PR campaign promising the “dawn of a new era” both Di Canio and Di Fanti were both gone by January 2014. The “new era” may have lasted less than a year, but the effects are still being felt almost two years later.

![Tony Marshall/Getty Images Sport](https://readsunderland.com/https://media.readsunderland.com/readsunderland/2015/10/181663175.jpg)

Thankfully, most of the players signed in that disastrous summer have now left the club, but just getting them off the books has proved a monumental challenge. We have been burdened with players on wages disproportionate to their ability, with little to no re-sale value, with little or no experience of English football. This has meant no championship clubs have been willing to take a chance on players with no experience and lesser foreign clubs were unable to compete with the wages Sunderland were paying.

This led to the club having to take substantial losses on players by allowing them to leave on a free or simply terminating their contracts.

As I mentioned earlier an identity is essential for the director of football model to succeed. However during the Paolo Di Canio era there appeared to be a huge conflict between the wishes of Di Fanti and Di Canio.

Di Canio often talked of a need for a British core but instead the only criteria needed to be met that summer seemingly was being young, foreign and cheap. Even when money was spent on more established players such as Jozy Altidore and Emmanuel Giaccherini it, in hindsight it looks increasingly as though they were simply available as opposed to fitting a certain formation.

Then came the Gus Poyet era and for a while at least, things looked to be improving. For a start, the newly-appointed sporting director had better credentials than Di Fanti; Lee Congerton had been a coach at Chelsea and oversaw transfers at cash-strapped Hamburg. More importantly, however, it appeared as though an identity was being established.

Gus Poyet was a major proponent of a passing style of football, with a typically South American possession based game with a patient build up play. However, in January 2015 this seemed to be thrown out of the window with the signing of Jermain Defoe.

Defoe may be seen by many as one of the best finishers of the Premier League era, however, he was simply the wrong signing at the wrong time. This is not the fault of Jermain Defoe, last season his work rate could not be questioned and he scored some vital goals in the process of keeping Sunderland up, but he simply does not fit into many modern top flight systems.

![Matthew Ashton/Getty Images Sport](https://readsunderland.com/https://media.readsunderland.com/readsunderland/2015/10/4880385762.jpg)

Following his signing, Gus Poyet abandoned his methodical game and desperately searched for a system which would suit Defoe. He tried playing 4-4-2, which left the side looking desperately unbalanced and directionless. A whole manager’s philosophy had to be changed to suit one player.

As seems to be the case in the modern game, when short-term results were not yielded the panic button was pressed by Elis Short and Poyet was sacked. What happened next was the latest in a long line of failings by the club. After seemingly having a blueprint of appointing an upcoming, “tracksuit manager” the club totally abandoned this and appointed Dick Advocaat.

Although the Dutchman has arguably the most impressive CV of any manager in Sunderland’s history, it should only have ever been an appointment until the end of last season.The reason for this is self-evident. Advocaat lasted just eight games into the new season, with Dutchman, self-admittedly, not the type of character to be locked in a relegation battle.

So now what? Do we go back to a young manager with a distinct way of playing? Do we try and attract a “big name” manager to take us to the next level? The way the club is being run at the present moment, who knows?

For all the board have acted with good intentions and tried to move the club forward, a lack of identity, or plan when it comes to player recruitment ultimately means progression is impossible.