I have often wondered how come a club of Sunderland's size, the huge fan base etc etc, has constantly let me down over the years. Not withstanding the odd flirtation with cups, and a brief time under Reid, we have been dire in my 57 years on this planet. Then I looked at how many managers we have had since 1958 (year I was born) and maybe the clue is there. We have had 37 managers in my lifetime...admittedly that includes all the caretakers, But 37 men (in my life) have sat in the managers chair.........outrageous. When I reflect on Sunderland in my time, all the money we have spunked up the wall on substandard players and mercenaries , if that kind of money could have been available to Reid when we sitting 2nd in the premier league, who knows what could have been.
And we only had six or seven managers between 1889 and 1957. Funnily enough, one of our full backs - Bill Murray - was tranferred to St. Mirren yesterday in 1937. He returned to Sunderland as manager two years later
Since Bruce went i have had high expectations of all the managers. O'Neil. Di Canio. Poyet. Dick. All i thought would do a good job. Funnily i have zero expectations from SA. So lets hope this is the one.
I think the biggest disappointment for me was MoN, I actually thought we had cracked it with him. After that, I lost so much confidence and especially when that lunatic Di Canio took over. Like you Comm' I was a little indifferent to Big Sam, but he really was the one who could give us any chance of escaping the drop...still think that as well.
Lost our chance to bea top 6 side when we signed nobody when Durban was in charge. A couple of signings when we were flying near Xmas under Reidy and who knows where we,d have gone, since then as said maybe only MON looked like he was doing it
think they divide the number of games by the number of managers Read it yesterday on a item about BS because Swansea was his 450th game as manager making him 5th behind Ferguson,Wenger Redknapp Moyes
It's going to get that way for all the bottom half clubs though, Comm. There's so much money in the Prem now, a chairman has to try everything possible to stay up, even if he knows long-term it's unfair on his manager. They've got no option.
Mourinho's sacking has proved that the days of the long term managers are probably over, it's a merry-go-round these days, I remember looking at Serie A a few seasons ago and reading that 17 managers had been sacked during the season I thought that was ridiculous but we'll get there in this league no doubt.
