Lee Congerton’s time is finally up at The Stadium of Light. He handed in his notice two months ago and this afternoon it was announced that he has left the club and is now on gardening leave while he serves the remainder of his notice. He had been under constant criticism, especially since the summer as Sunderland once again bought players in and once again find themselves in a relegation battle.
Congerton came to the club after Roberto Di Fanti’s nightmare stint as Director of Football. Congertons experience in the role in Europe and the work he had done at Chelsea gave fans hope that the role could now work with the right man.
Sunderland’s Sporting Director Lee Congerton Leaves Club
In the summer of 2014 the club signed several players, however they chased the one man they really wanted for the entire summer, Fabio Borini. They failed in their attempt to sign the forward and late in the summer spent the money set aside for Borini on central midfielder Jack Rodwell. A plan B forward was obviously not thought of in time.
In January of this year he did pull off what many believed to be the deal of the decade. A straight swap involving goal shy Jozy Altidore and proven Premier League goal scorer Jermain Defoe was negotiated with Toronto much to the surprise and delight of many supporters.
This summer was an issue though, having spent weeks persuading Dick Advocaat to return he set about signing players that the head coach believed the club required. If reports are true many of the signings that came in were not players that Advocaat wanted or was aware of. This was big error of judgement by Congerton. Having a head coach with the experience and knowledge of Advocaat and seemingly ignoring it or not asking for it was a big mistake. Eight players signed during the summer, how many of these were on Advocaats wish list is open to debate, but Sunderland are struggling once again.
With Congerton gone maybe its now time for Sunderland to put the mess and mistake of the Sporting Director/Director of Football role behind them and get back to basics off the pitch. This is looking likely seeing as Sam Allardyce was given the job title manager and not head coach after the departure of Dick Advocaat.
The role just has not worked out at Sunderland and it will be looked back on as an expensive error, which until The Black Cats are in a more stable place in the Premier League, it should not be looked at again. And even if the role is considered again, a reminder of the years of Roberto Di Fanti and Lee Congerton maybe required.
