I wish him all the best. I hate it when Sunderland managers are sacked because it means they haven’t succeeded so the club hasn’t succeeded and I think the one thing we all agree on is that we want success for our club. Fine margins in football, two Wembley wins last season (at the very least 1 Wembley win in the play off final) and things might have been very different for him.
Sacking only worked in the short term though. It didn't address WHY those managers kept failing. It didn't improve the club. It contributed to the spiralling debt. Nine times out of ten, managers are the fall guy for underperforming players. That's why you get the 'new manager bounce' as those players realise they have to put in a bit of effort for a while.
I've said for a while that Ross was caretaker manager and I think he, Fowler, etc knew it ... ... hence new schools being arranged, etc. Ross told Donald he'd take the club up when he went for the job and failed despite having the likes of Cattermole, McGeady, Honeyman, etc in L1. He was showing no signs of doing better, this season, and the team look totally uninspired. He let 2 Wembley leads slip away, as well as way too many in the league, and we now look incapable of recovering once behind. Bolton, Peterborough and Lincoln were totally unacceptable and I can't see an argument for keeping Ross ... ... 'we can't keep sacking managers' isn't enough in this case.
Sacking worked? Very short term outlook! We stayed up, then failed, then stayed up, then failed. Then rinse and repeat until Moyes. Then sacked the next two and we’re now in league 1. Massive success that! Also good to know that your opinion is that “staying up” is success. I had higher expectations of my club than that
The Portsmouth fans would drive him up here, reading a bit on their forum, and they can't wait to get rid of him....it would be a big no from me tho...
Seems a popular choice, and the favourite with some of the bookies. Guess we'll find out soon enough, the international break has come at a good time.
Like I say, I wouldn't really want him, I'd much rather someone younger and more likely to stick around. He's been around and done it at this level before though and that makes him a more realistic option than Keane, Phillips or Allardyce in my opinion.
He won’t go down as a bad manager, and I’m sure he will do a good job elsewhere. It’s a tough job and he had a fair crack at it, at a club with lower expectations he will be a good gaffer for sure.
This. We were too big a club for him as his first go South of the border. Every press conference pre match he said along the lines we were expected to win every week which I think wore him down in the end. Mind in his defence (slightly) I think the pelters he's had when we did lose this season has been a bit OTT and added to that pressure but I fully understand the fans who travel having a go after paying good money and see the team performing so badly especially in the past six weeks or so.
Agreed. Facts are another year in this league could cripple us long term, so we have done the right thing. There’s an expression in sales ‘panic early’, based around getting ahead of targets so as to not force things in the run in. It absolutely applies here. It was the right thing to do.
It was fine margins. Three of them draws could of been wins and we were up. I honestly think Ross would of done better in championship, Who knows, over thought it, ?whatever. He certainly isn't a shìt manager regardless of the poor football. Imo. Maja going and grigg not fitting was a nail but did he have any say in any of it ?
