After being appointed Sunderland's Head Coach until the end of the season, Dick Advocaat has revealed that he thought he would have been appointed sooner but had to wait for the club to remove Gus Poyet from the role. When asked by a Dutch newspaper whether he had been waiting for Poyet to be fired, Advocaat replied; Yes, only I would have thought that they would do it earlier, but they did not. The 67-year-old then explained why Sunderland made the change and rejected rumours that a huge bonus was a factor in him taking the job; Poyet was a coach who is very self-focused. They're looking for someone with experience, who knows what the deal is. For this period, they dared not to take a risk with an inexperienced coach. What have I got to lose? Nothing. I really enjoy doing this and the salaries that I read, they are completely false. That was not important to me. It has been thought that Advocaat won't be here next season, regardless of what happens, which the Dutchman believes will be the case; Oh no, because from what I hear and read here, they are already looking at a younger coach. Ordinarily, I am only here for two months. Although it appears his spell at the Stadium of Light will be a short one, he has enjoyed his time here so far and is looking forward to the challenge of keeping the team in the Premier League; Actually, it's great. You can already see how big the club is by the reception. Well organized. The academy where they train is only five years old. It looks great. The stadium I have not seen, but it seems to be great. Yes, the first two days were good. Look, they have a stadium where 50,000 people in, with all the trimmings. When you see the difference in what you get on TV rights if you are relegated, which is huge. I have asked the players if they want to play in the Championship or does everyone want to play in the Premier League? Advocaat also spoke about our current injury problems and said a couple of players will have to play at the weekend, despite not being able to train this week; Look, basically we just have a decent team, if everyone is fit. But John O'Shea and Sebastian Larsson for instance, who have not trained this week, but will need to play Saturday because the group is quite small. Then you have the derby against Newcastle United, so we hope that there are a few players back.
Good read that, certainly looks like he's been sounded out for quite a while, if he's as meticulous as folk say he his then you can bet he's been doing his homework http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2015/03/18/9960552/-?
Great read indeed, he's a straight shooter & I like that.. No stones unturned IMO, we've been needing a bloke like that for some time..
If he expected Poyet to be sacked sooner I reckon hes been watching and studying us for a number of weeks which is good news. A man if his experience will have seen the fundamental flaws in our play and he'll have a good idea of what he needs to do to fix them.
all sounds quite promising, I liked the bit where he asked where the players wanted to be playing next year, prem or champ? can he make the difference to the team, who knows but I hope so.
It does all sound quite promising. Didn't read there anything I wouldn't have expected to see though, except for the..... 'I haven't seen the stadium yet'
The club essentially put in a contingency plan a while before Poyet was sacked. Was Poyet undermined? Did Poyet know about this? Poyet wanted to be sacked and the board wanted him to quit by the looks of it. In the end they had to push him. Not sure why Advocaat had to come out with this information to the press, unless instructed to by Short in an attempt to humiliate Poyet?
Agree; it's a bit distasteful but good to see they started looking ahead once they heard the warning bells. Good luck DA.
There were warning bells in my opinion around Christmas time, I think it was. Can't really show you any evidence of this but wasn't Poyet moaning about getting no support in the transfer window before it even opened, or something along those lines? Or possibly he'd suggested some players and they didn't get approved by the DoF? Seemed ready to walk out, but I remember thinking 'he looks like he wants to be sacked'.
The 'short term' thing must be of slight concern, but compared to keeping Gus I suppose its little to worry about.
Probably been posted but I'm too tired to check, http://safc.com/news/team-news/2015/march/advocaat-focused-on-results "There is enough quality in this squad to stay up. We have a difficult programme, as do the other teams, but it’s all up to us and I have a good feeling about it." - Advocaat on task ahead
I was still KTF until QPR, that's when I felt he'd lost it. Still, got a trip to Wem-ber-lee out of it
