In 1983 a band called Orange Juice released a song called ‘Rip it up and Start Again’. Maybe this is what the Sunderland board should do with their blueprint of what should take the club forward.
Sunderland have won their last two games which in turn has taken them out of the bottom three. This has given their supporters a renewed sense of optimism that relegation can once more be thwarted. However, after several seasons of struggles, is now the time when things at the club have to change?
Since returning to the Premier League in 2007, and especially since American Ellis Short took over the club from Niall Quinn and the Drumaville Consortium, whatever the plan set out was to take the club forward has not worked.
The introduction of a Director of Football has not worked. For two seasons now, Sunderland have employed a Director of Football to oversee the transfers in and out of the club. Roberto Di Fanti was the first to try his hand at a watered down real life version of Football Manager. He signed more than a dozen players, most of them foreigners with little or no experience of English football. Many of these players saw little action in a Sunderland shirt and ultimately didn’t last long at the club. Di Fanti was sacked halfway through the season.
Lee Congerton was the next man to try his luck and was given the title “Sporting Director”. Congerton is highly thought of in football circles having had success as chief scout at Chelsea and as technical director at German club Hamburg. His signings so far have been on the underwhelming side, however he did do an excellent job in talking Toronto FC into doing a swap deal with Jermaine Defoe coming to Sunderland and misfiring striker Jozy Altidore heading the other way. He was also instrumental in bringing Dick Advocaat to the club and he will be hoping that the experienced Dutchman can save the club from relegation and maybe his own job.
Changing the manager at regular intervals has also not worked. Since returning to the Premier League in 2007, Sunderland have had six permanent managers and a further three caretaker managers; not exactly a platform for stability. However, with the club almost every season flirting with or battling relegation, can anyone blame the owner for changing things before they got worse? Or does the blame lie at the feet of the owner for not appointing the right people in the first place? Paolo Di Canio will probably the first name to come to mind to many supporters. Maybe if the two managers Sunderland had with a lot of Premier League experience had been given more time, namely Steve Bruce and Martin O’Neill, would they have turned things round when the club was in a bad way and even possibly be still at the club? Who knows, but stability is not word associated with the club at the present.
Recruitment of type of manager believed to be required? It’s not worked. Has the right appointment been made to take the club forward after a sacking has been made? History says no, as Sunderland are once again battling relegation to the Championship. In the short term, there have been times when things have been looking good. A tenth place finish under Steve Bruce, the appointment and subsequent upturn in form when Martin O’Neill took charge and a League Cup Final appearance only a few short months after Gus Poyet took charge all gave fans hope. As always though, it seems any change in fortune is short lived.
The club’s transfer policy? That’s not worked either. Is there a transfer policy? When Roberto Di Fanti was Director of Football it was rumoured to be with the agreement that players with Premier League experience – ideally British – would be brought in to make the backbone of the squad. This did not even come close to happening. Why not?
At the present it seems to be the case of if the club needs a player for a certain position they go out and buy a player who can play in that role. For example Phil Bardsley left on a free transfer, and Billy Jones came in from West Brom to replace him. On the other hand, Jack Rodwell came in for £10 million and at the time his position was not necessarily a one that needed to be addressed. So the question of “is there a transfer policy” may remain unanswered in the short term at least.
Bringing through players from the club’s academy – with the exception of Jordan Henderson and Jack Colback – is another initiative that has not worked. Once Sunderland had built their impressive new home The Stadium of Light back in 1997, they set about building an academy that would hopefully in time bring through players into the first team. The academy or to give it its official name The Academy of Light officially opened in 2003. In the 12 years it has been open, very few players have come through the academy that have been deemed good enough to have a regular place in the first team. The exceptions are the aforementioned Henderson and Colback. Henderson was sold to Liverpool for a fee of around £16-£20 million, and is now an England International and a possible future Liverpool and England captain. Colback left Sunderland last summer, and signed for rivals Newcastle United on a free transfer after playing more than 100 games.
So now, with relegation once more hanging over the heads of Sunderland Association Football Club and its long suffering loyal and passionate supporters, is it time to take the blueprint of what they believe is required to make the club go forward, rip it up and start again? It certainly seems it’s time, as, whether Sunderland stay up or not, something has to change, else or another battle next season awaits be it to stay in the Premiership or in the Championship.
Two wins in the last two games have put the club’s top flight status firmly in their own hands. One more victory at home to Leicester City this coming Saturday will hopefully be enough to keep Sunderland in the Premier League and give them a platform for a brighter future.
