Many people like playing the game Football Manager, but there are people playing a version of it for real, at real clubs, with real money and messing with people’s careers, minds and hearts. Those people are directors of football.
The role is used across Europe and is generally seen as the norm, and has seen teams succeed, but for whatever reason it hasn’t really worked in this country. In the Premier League, the tried and trusted formula over the years is to have a manager who is in charge of the team, the transfers and pretty much the club minus the money/admin side.
The role at Sunderland has been used for several years now. It was introduced shortly after Niall Quinn left the club, the last footballing person to work behind the scenes at the club. And this ultimately is where the problem lies. Neither the owner, director of football or anyone on the board these days are footballing people. It’s not in their DNA and if they are to persist on this way of running the club then surely a “footballing person” would be the way to go.
Two people have filled the role at Sunderland since owner Ellis Short decided it was the way to go having seen it used successfully in Europe. Roberto Di Fanti and Lee Congerton are the two Short has put his trust in. Has it worked? No. Many players have been signed for big money and or big wages. Many have failed. Too many.
Di Fanti for example, had a brief to sign players with Premier League experience. He signed more than a dozen players that one summer, many of them foreigners with little or no experience of the English game. At best three proved successful, and two of those were loan signings. The rest languished in the U21 team or were sent out on loan.
This summer Advocaat stated he needed at least six first team players. Has Congerton delivered the players required? Given more time, maybe, but the performances and the league table suggest not. It is also worrying when reports surface that Advocaat allegedly knew nothing about the likes of DeAndre Yedlin signing from Tottenham on loan on deadline day or anything about the player. This cannot be a formula that leads to success. Surely the head coach must have a say in the players that come to the club, as he has to work with them and make them into a team, not the DoF. Was Advocaat given a say in the recruitment of each player signed? It makes you wonder. Also if Congerton has not used Advocaat’s vast experience and knowledge of the game and the players in it, then this will be a serious error. Should all the blame lie at Lee Congerton’s feet? Of course not but he has to take his fair share of the responsibility but so do various others connected with the club of late.
Sunderland fans and the club desperately wanted Advocaat to stay, the club knew he has always favoured a 4-3-3 formation. Has Lee Congerton and owner Ellis Short given him the players to do the job and play the formation that has proved successful for years for him? The stats at the minute unfortunately say no, even though some decent players have been brought in.
This is a massive shame because all Sunderland fans want is a team that is seen to be giving their all on the pitch win lose or draw and people at the club all pulling in the same direction. After the summer when they finally got Advocaat to agree to return, Sunderland supporters had hopes that forward steps, however small, were about to be taken. They still may, but once again Sunderland are on a winless streak at the start of a Premier League campaign. This is not to say the club does not want the club to move forward, of course they do but even they would have to admit the last few years have not gone well.
The game has certainly changed over the years and a director of football at every club may be the way forward in the future but this way can only work if all parties at the club are on the same page. At this stage in Sunderland’s existence and the situations they keep finding themselves in, a director of football role is not one that can be got wrong if the club are insistent on using it going forward. Can it work at Sunderland or elsewhere in the Premier League? Of course it can with the right person in the role, be it an ex player, ex manager or scout etc. That person then has to work with the head coach and owner to get it right especially at a club where mistakes cannot be covered up by throwing more money at it.
Even though Sunderland have signed some good players such as Jermain Defoe, Yann M’Villa and Fabio Borini, it hasn’t worked. The league tables over the last few years, results, signings and managers/coaches that have come and gone back this up.
Sunderland cannot keep relying on managers/coaches to come in, save them by masterminding great escapes and be replaced the following season when things aren’t going their way. Sunderland need to get back to basics both on and off the pitch and it needs to be done sooner rather than later or dark days similar to those in the mid eighties, early nineties and record low points could be paying a visit. Nobody connected with Sunderland wants to see those days ever again.
So to answer the question “is it time for the director of football role to go at Sunderland?” Yes it is, if the right person cannot be found to make it work, be that Lee Congerton or a new person. Will it fix their current situation? It’s difficult to say but I’m sure many Sunderland fans would agree the time for a review of the situation is almost here if not already here.
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