A nutter probably isn’t a bad thing when you don’t have to deal with him every day
No, that was Di Canio. Poyet came in after and would have been relatively popular.
Got to the League Cup final in 2014 and pulled off a fairly miraculous survival from relegation at a point they looked dead & buried considering the fixtures - ended up beating Chelsea & Man Utd away, and drew with City.
Having said that, he was in charge for them being in that position too (albeit Di Canio had had an awful start).
He was eventually sacked because he played a fairly dull brand of possession football that didn’t really create chances and his recruitment was poor. The following season wins were hard to get, held scoreless quite a bit.
I’m not massively enthusiastic but he should get us organised at the very least. And he did pull off some big results against bigger teams, plus won every derby, which means a lot up there.
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He’s a proper manager Poyet.
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Ah yes
The bits I remember of that Sunderland era were entertaining (even before relegation[s?] & Netflix series). I recall a derby win away to Newcastle when Di Canio did a knee slide celebration in his suit along the touchline. I had no recollection of Poyet ever managing them but Big Sam plotted an escape or two at some stage, I think. Who was in charge when they eventually got relegated @Aristotle? They then went down to League 1 for a while & had all sorts of journeymen managers for short, unsuccessful spells.
If we were to pick purely from a pool of failed Sunderland managers since 2000 I think I’d go in this order
Big Sam
David Moyes
Chris Coleman
Gus Poyet
Phil Parkinson
Dick Advocaat
Paulo DiCanio
Steve Bruce
Mick McCarthy
Niall Quinn
Simon Grayson
Howard Wilkinson
Martin O Neill
Roy Keane
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Moyes managed Sunderland?!
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Just before West Ham
Sunderland might be the most Irish club in England given how closely aligned we seem to be with them
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After O’Neill was trudging towards a dull relegation, Di Canio came in and did liven things up, had the 3-0 win in St. James’ Park after which the Newcastle fans trashed their own city and punched a horse.
But he banned ketchup and the likes of O’Shea didn’t care for that so much, so out he went.
Poyet came in then; he won 3 derbies in a row- Borini scored a last minute winner in one, then there was another 3-0 in Newcastle and then another last-minute minute for a 1-0. Generally popular for that plus the cup run but was 17th when he was sacked the following season and replaced with Advocaat.
Again, got the fans onside with a derby win early in his reign (Defoe scored an unbelievable left-footed volley) and steadied the ship. Wasn’t going to stay beyond the end of the season, was going to retire, but was tempted to stay and that was a bad call.
Advocaat had a woeful start to the next season (bottom with no wins) and then Allardyce came in. Again, won a derby 3-0 in like his second game, recruited well in January and stayed up with a very strong finish to the season, relegating Newcastle in the process.
He took the England job, Moyes came in and relegation beckoned because Moyes signed a load of Everton & Man Utd rejects- a 90-year-old Steven Pienaar & Joleon Lescott, the eternally crippled Victor Anichebe, the utterly shit Donald Love, the cowardly Adnan Januzaj.
Moyes never believed he could beat teams who had better players than him; it’s why he was quite successful at Everton but still never beat the big teams. He’s clearly a good manager in some respects but is really negative in both playstyle & demeanour and he sucked the life out of the club. The awful recruitment didn’t help.
A lot of those managers have been linked with the Ireland job; I think Allardyce gets a hard time. His football might be direct but it’s mostly high-tempo, gets the fans onside; I would have said a lot better to watch than Poyet’s slow, possession football. But Poyet is definitely preferable to a lot of the other contenders.
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We’ll regret not picking Big Sam. We truly will. He would have a major trophy with England had he stayed.
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I think he is a deeply dislikeable individual which is the main reason for the negativity.
I like the look of Ricky Sbragia and Tony Mowbray - good Celtic connections there.
Peter Reid could become the Jim Larkin of Irish football.
Terry Butcher if we’re serious about instilling some traditional Irish John Bull spirit.
Malcolm Crosby might be an option?
Gus Poyet inflicted Jose Mourinho’s first ever home league defeat as Chelsea manager, a result that ensured Liverpool would win the title for the first time in 24 years.
He did.
It was during the period of 5 or 6 weeks where Connor Wickham looked like he might develop into a top class striker. He was unbelievable in that run and then never again.
Connor Wickham. Quite some time since I’ve heard that name. Currently at Charlton Athletic on a short term contract, he joined four days ago.
Could we still get him to declare for us?
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I’m sure he’d jump at the chance now but injuries killed whatever chance he had of being even a solid England international.
In fairness to him, he managed to have 10 seasons of Premier League wages despite being a cripple. Sunderland paid a fair bit of money for him but, in reality, mugged Palace off by getting a similar amount in return.
It’s creative midfielders we should be hunting if we need to get a dodgy passport though; the likes of Ferguson, Idah, Obafemi, Armstrong, etc. leave us relatively well-covered up top.
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STOP THE PRESSES.
Rafa Benitez sacked by Celta Vigo.
From Celta to the Celtic fringes. From Here Vigo to Here We Go.
We have our man.
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Hasnt managed Sunderland, could be a stumbling block
We also accept people who have managed Newcastle.
Was linked to Liverpool when he was at Ipswich back in the day.
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