Here we again. Two and a half months into the season, and people are already calling for the manager’s head. Actually, now I come to think of it, that happened before two and a half hours of football had been played under new boss David Moyes. His Sunderland crested business suit hadn’t even had the chance to get creased before his position was looking shaky.
It doesn’t help that he still hasn’t guided us to a league win during his tenure. It also doesn’t help that his football can look negative at times, with ten men sitting behind the ball, viewing Jermaine Defoe as a mere dot on the horizon some 85 yards away.
But come on. We’ve played eight league games, and the knives are already sharpened and poised. Has he had a good start to the season? No. has he given us reason to believe that this year is going to be different? Far from it. Has he even given us decent football that is entertaining to watch? Not especially. But what is the alternative? End his contract, give him a huge payout and watch him skullk off to the Seychelle’s before returning as a mediocre presenter for Sky’s midweek matches? Who would be the winner there – because it certainly wouldn’t be our football club. It wouldn’t even be David Moyes, who surely wants to prove everyone wrong and do well up here.
We have to give the man a chance. Let’s not forget, we’re treading water in a league which last year saw Chelsea sack the manager who had won them the title in the same calendar year. Imagine that! Talk about first world problems. You’ve won the league but your world class manager isn’t quite shaping up by Christmas. There’s a problem most Sunderland fans would love to have. It’s a problem Leicester City could see themselves facing after their unprecedented rise to glory last year. They currently sit 13th in the table after achieving the impossible last May- will Claudio Ranieri, last year’s manager of the season and all-round poster child of underdogs everywhere find himself at the dole office before the turn of the year?
With the average lifespan of the Premier League manager standing at around 15 months, it would appear no one is safe. You’re only as good as your last few results, and as The Special One has proved – no one is safe. Arsene Wenger might not personally be my cup of tea, but you can’t take away from the man his commitment to Arsenal and all that he has achieved at the club. Yet there were the Arsenal fans last year, twisting and crying because their club might not finish second by the end of the season. They staged their protests and waved their banners as the toys were chucked well and truly out of the pram. – only for them to finish second after all, making them look not just ungrateful but really quite stupid. It’s hard to summon any sympathy for a team bleating about such a privileged league position, when you follow a club where finishing 17th is the equivalent of an FA Cup final. (Well not really, but you know.) Arsene doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere though, does he? Twenty years and still going strong, despite the half-hearted protests and Piers Morgan Twitter rants.
As soon as there’s a bit of unrest in a camp, the axe starts swinging in the background. The ink is barely dry in some cases – just look at Aston Villa in the past 18 months. They’ve had more messy break-ups than Kerry Katona and their latest squeeze is fresh from the rebound at Hull. Brucey’s probably already got his eye on the next gig – if he doesn’t get Villa promoted by May, there’ll no doubt be the usual pressure for their board to go boss-shopping again.
You can’t really mention Steve Bruce without drawing attention to Sunderland’s reputation with managers. There was a time we used to take the mick out of the circus up the road, with a managerial swap shop Noel Edmonds would be jealous of. Nowadays though – are we any better? Hardly.
Sam Allardyce had just started to bed into the role and we had finally seemed a more settled side when the England carrot was dangled in front of his snout. Fair enough, he had a plan, he was in it for the long haul to better himself. well. He had a plan.
His predecessor nearly ended up working himself into an early grave, such was the pressure of managing our club. Poor Advocaat who was lured to Sunderland despite the disapproval of his missus – was sacking him at the time we did the right decision? The man had saved us from the brink of relegation, only to be given his marching orders two months into the season. Thanks for the memories and all that Dicky Boy, but off you go, you’ve served your purpose.
Gus Poyet left after only barely a year and a half and despite the terrible run of results which led to his dismissal, his time in charge wasn’t all bad. Not only did he sign Defoe, Gustav took us to Wembley – the ray of sunshine most of us are still dining out on years later. Its the closest we’ve got to glory since winning the Championship with Keano. Ah Keano – he was what, 3 managers ago? Four? Try 10, if you include the caretaker managers we’ve had in the meantime. Does it really seem like we’ve had 10 managers since he led us to the top of Championship and made us fall in love with Sunderland all over again?
Before we go back to Keano, we have to remember Paolo DiCanio – those dirty knees and a truly divisive manager, who polarised opinions and gifted the press shock headlines and photographs. Martin O’Neill, who we pursued for years like the first love we had at the school disco, only for him to be discarded less than 18 months later without a “keep in touch” card.
Which brings us back to Bruce. It’s almost the law that when a mid-table or struggling side plays swap-the-manager, certain names get thrown into the hat. Back in the day, it was David O’Leary and Alan Curbishley – wheeled out like great auntie Jean at Christmas and Easter, never to be seen or heard of again until the next sacking occurs. Nowadays its Bruce, Pulis, Allardyce, McLaren, Moyes, Hughes to name but a few. Every time we talk about kicking another manager to the kerb, its the same names that get bandied about. None of them particularly exciting, none of them particularly different to anything we’ve had before. Unless Mourinho suddenly expresses an interest in buying his designer threads at the Bridges or Guardiola fancies a little cottage on the seafront, its doubtful they’re going to be managing our club. Big names are unlikey to sign to manage Sunderland – in fact, Moyes and Allardyce were probably two of the names that Sunderland fans were happy to have in the mix for once. If Moyes gets back on the merry-go-round, who will it be next?
Unless Sir Alex Ferguson is finding retirement a bit of a drag and fancies a challenge the size of Everest, we’re going to have to accept that we’ve got what we’ve got. All we can do is hope that we get that elusive first win of the season, start scoring goals, and make some killer signings in the January transfer window. Not much to ask is it Mr Moyes?
