In what has been a busy few days on Wearside. Sunderland, after losing Sam Allardyce to England have today appointed a new manager. The new man at the Stadium of Light helm is ex-Manchester United and Everton manager David Moyes.
After weeks of uncertainty, the Black Cats finally lost Sam Allardyce to England. Ellis Short, the club’s American owner, quickly went about finding a new man to take the reigns on Wearside. When appointing Allardyce, Short, like many fans, thought that it would be some time before this scenario presented itself again. When survival was finally achieved, hope and optimism was once again in the air on Wearside. However, football is unpredictable. Especially, it seems, at Sunderland and in the North East of England.
Club Statement
Ever since Roy Hodgson resigned as England manager after their defeat to Iceland at Euro 2016, fans of Sunderland were kept in the dark. On Wednesday night, Sunderland issued a statement insisting that Allardyce was still their manager. The statement read:-
The statement came after many sources claimed that Allardyce would be confirmed as the Three Lions new manager within 24 hours. However, this was not the case. It took a further 48 hours for the FA to agree compensation with the Black Cats. Either way, Allardyce had departed Wearside for his new job.
Sunderland Appoint David Moyes
The club stated that they would be moving quickly to appoint a new manager. They did just that. David Moyes, out of work since a stint managing in Spain with Real Sociedad, was the man to whom Ellis Short turned his attention. With the experienced manager not attached to another club, the deal was quickly done. Sunderland once again have a new manager. Moyes will now turn his attentions to pre-season, assessing the squad and identifying new recruits.
To the club’s and Allardyce’s credit, Moyes can look at a more slimline squad. Many squad players surplus to requirements have finally been moved on or will be leaving very soon if a buyer is found. With no new signings being brought in due to the cloud of uncertainty over the Stadium of Light, the new manager will have a full transfer budget to work with, too. How big that budget is remains to be seen.
Like Allardyce, Moyes is an experienced Premier League manager. After a successful spell at Preston North End he moved on to Everton. He was the Toffees manager for 11 years with an overall win percentage of 42%. He left Merseyside in 2013 to take charge of Manchester United. The Scotsman lasted less than one year at Old Trafford. Although this is looked up by many as a poor period in United’s history, he still had a 52.9% win record. Slightly better than the man who replaced him, Louis van Gaal.
In November 2014, Moyes was appointed the new manager of Spanish side Real Sociedad. He was sacked one year later after a poor start to the season.
Moyes Relishing Challenge
Sunderland fans have become quite used to a scenario such as this under Ellis Short’s reign as owner. Although they are used to it, it does not make it easier. This will be the seventh manager to have worked with the American owner since he took full control of the Black Cats in the summer of 2009. Fans are once again keeping the faith and have hopes that maybe this time the club can find stability. David Moyes has signed a four-year deal which hopefully will mean a little bit of long-term thinking. Watch this space though, as where Sunderland are concerned something is usually lurking just around the corner.
