Paolo Di Canio ... I saw his Swindon team play quite a few times ... there were games where they played fast, passing football that was a better standard than a lot of Championship clubs. Should he have stayed at Swindon for a bit longer? Probably, but how do you turn down a Prem job? Truth is, Sunderland have a huge problem ... their players. Di Canio was brought in to "sort out the prima donnas", which he did. They spit the dummy and suddenly he's no good? This debacle highlights the rubbish that the Prem has become. It is a hugely over rated league, hyped up to the enth degree by Sky and the media. Instead all it has become is an easy payday for a vast amount of okay footballers. The monster has been created, and every now and then we catch a glimpse of it. Sunderland is the latest example. How can these under achieving players keep getting away with it? Last season their fans were bombarding phone ins after O'Neill got axed ... their gripe? The prima donna players who let a very good manager down and who were destroying their club!! Di Canio was revered as the only man possible of kicking butt and saving them from relegation. This he did. However, the fish had rotted so far already that sprinkling it with a bit of salt and sticking it in the freezer for the summer couldn't save it. Sunderland's pansies started this season clearly with the "we'll show you" attitude, culminating in their disgraceful charade at WBA where they pretended they were footballers. They knew what they were doing ... assassinating their manager. A phone call to the CEO, a clandestine meeting threatening her with a boycott ... and bang!! Manager is sacked, she better hope they LOVE the next manager she appoints!! There it is ... the Prem footballer of today unmasked. They take no blame for their failures, but milk any success their club has (see John Terry, banned captain lifting trophy). They are above criticism, how can they be criticised if they earn more than a small country each season? This attitude has filtered through to the England setup now, these Prem "stars" parading at Wembley but not actually playing. Oh, it's not because they can't play, it's just that they're not good enough at the highest level. Don't tell them, though. Sky keeps telling them a different story, and they clearly believe it. Sunderland ... relegation may well be the only cure for you. At least all those rats at your club will jump ship Odemwingie style ... you won't even have to transfer list them. Your board is a disgrace, and it reflects in your players. The right thing to do would be to refund all your season ticket holders, transfer list the entire senior squad and start again. The fish is smelling awful now, and it's stinking up football.
I got to the bit about PDC leaving Swindon for Sunderland and realised you know Jack. Good luck tonight...
Errr... Whatever - He didn;t leave Swindon for us - he spat his dummy out because the club sold his players from under his nose He also stated after the West Brom game that everything that went wrong was all of the players faults - so the fact that, despite Steven Fletcher having only 65 minutes of football in 8 months, he made 3 substitutions and left Fletcher oin - who then picked up an injury which saw us down to 10 men - top, top management! How would you feel if your manager kept belittling you at board meetings with you sat there or in front of TV cameras? Would you care?? I would. Di Canio took zero responsibility for any of his mistakes and told John O'Shea that he has not achieved anything in his career but that Di Canio hiumself was the best manager in the world?? A multiple trophy and medal laden 10 year career at one of the biggest clubs in the world against a league 2 side he walked away from and a premier side he couldn't get working down to his methods - top, top manager!! Oh - and there were very few of our fans who disagreed with O'Neill's sacking - you must've listened to 2 people or the expert pundits - he was taking us down
Haway Marcus man lol, No one could foresee Fletch popping his shoulder out, just one of them things. To Blame Paolo for that is the worse case of finger pointing since he was sacked, it could have happened in his first minute back under any manager. It wasn't even related to his original injury. You can do better than that fella. Paolo's tactical faults are everywhere after all. BillysStatue. I see your point even if the way you put your point is a little misguided. Sunderland is/was a 3 part problem mate. The Manager- He's Gone. The players- Getting away with it scot free despite some of them not showing up for 3 managers now. The Board- Which is all over the place in every sense of the word (they didn't even contact Swindon to enquire about Paolo's methods). Fixing one won't necessarily fix the other two and although I've been pushing this theory, not many seem to view it that way. I think maybe a lot of fans are giving the Board and players the benefit of the doubt this time and hoping the new manager will solve everything which is fair do's.
Not what I'm syaig bri mate - I know and agree no-one could see Fletcher's injury coming but he'd only played about 80 minutes of football in about 8 months so to risk him for a full 90 minutes in the premier league so soon was crazy IMO (and if it'd happened in his first minute back then we'd have still had 11 men on the field) - If it'd been last night then no problem against lower quality opposition with less physical strain but I would never expect a player with only an hour or so of first team football to last a full 90 minutes - he'd have tired if he hadn't got injured and effectively we'd still have been playing with 10 (it wasn't a Paolo is to blame for Fletchers injury dig - more a "he shouldn't have made the 3 subs so quickly due to Fletchers' lengthy lay off" dig
Ah, fair does fella. It's seems we went from a manager who left subs too late to a manager who used them far too quickly. I've always said you only get two subs to change a game. Should always leave the last until the last 10 minutes.
We all knew we Where taking on a "football lunatic" but I don't think any of us realised how much of a lunatic he is ( PDC was my first choice when MON left) but I go along with Niall Quinn's take on the situation and he stated that "when your in a battle you want a leader who you all look up to and want to go into a fight with and PDC was ducking out of the battle by blaming the players and saying what a great manager he was ".just out of curiosity who does anyone see at our club as " prima donnas" I can't think of any.
Whe PDC started making his motor mouth going after the Villa game, I didn't feel comfortable with his ability to man manage. What has happened is all of his own making. He has gone out of his way to alienate people..what kind of a manager does that. I have said it before, but its mindblowing that there is still people on here defending him. Not everyone is wrong about this guy..he has been outed as an incredibley devisive figure and I for one am glad he is not with our club no more.
Yeah mate, there's a big chunk of them who've done **** all for three managers now. Larsson in particular who we know can do better from the first 3 months of MoN's tenure, yet apart from those 3 months has been shocking for 3 managers.
Does none of the responsibility lie with the long serving players or the way the clubs been run like? Because Paulo only managed 13 games, what's the excuse for the last 3 years? And before you start, I'm not defending him, my previous posts acknowledged have consistently stated he had to, I'm just looking at the bigger picture.
I have got to agree with a lot of what the OP has said. All apart from the last bit about our board being a disgrace. They are actually the reason were still a premier league club rather than bankrupt and being relegated out of existence for years like Leeds. I think Short etc... are a lot cleverer than we give them credit for. He runs the club like a business, the good news is we need to be in the premier league for this to work, the bad news is he will sell our favorite players like Sess if the right money comes in. Look at it this way too, the amount of publicity were getting currently is massive, no publicity is bad publicity.
I think the board are handing things badly myself. I don't think the term any publicity is good publicity applies in football. Negative publicity lowers reputation, a low reputation leads to struggle to land the right players. If any publicity was good publicity then we'd all be lining up to shake Greg Dyke's hand.
Larson is a strange one because he gets a lot of games so managers clearly see enough in him to give him game time. Maybe we think of him as a better standard player than he really is because I don't think you can question his attitude , you can always have a pop at his ability or lack of it. This applies to a lot of our team I don't think we have a squad of players with a poor, lazy , attitude, and I certainly don't see a team of prima donnas as the OP suggests.
Mackems ... my point is that you have a squad with too many lazy sods in it ... hugely overpaid and talentless players bleeding your wonderful club dry. Your fans deserve so much more ... turning up every week to roar the lads on ... except they don't care!!! Di Canio did an amazing job at Swindon, which was my point. At a level where players earn a lot less, there are hundreds of equal ability and they need to perform or else ... different attitude. In the Prem? Oh fcuk the fans ... we're rich and we don't care. Your board is massively to blame ... they should have put their foot down and said enough's enough. All you needed was for the Chairman to publicly state that the players need to shut up and start performing ... that would have been a wise move. Once clubs realise they are potential wasters and moaners, they'd find it hard to get a shiny new contract elsewhere. Chairman should also publicly have called Di Canio out, and stated that "we will have a good talk about how to take this great club forward" ... that would have meant Di Canio resigning or knuckling down and concentrating on football, knowing his next indiscretion would cost him. Instead, by entertaining the rats in the squad the board have already weakened the new manager's position. What now? Players don't agree with the new manager and cry again? Come on!! Relegation is a certainty with these "players" you have, and Kevin Ball is definitely not the answer.
Of course the players take some responsibility over this, they are the ones who playing so crap and the ones who ultimately have us bottom of the league. But my issue with PDC is pretty much outside of the football field. Having said that, they autocratic way he manages must spill over on players performance..would you want to play for a guy who constantly belittles you privately and publicly?? The stories I am hearing from the club now suggests anyone not even connected with the playing staff have been affected by this guys behaviour. he is a bully, plain and simply...you cannot manage adults this way. So, in my humble opinion, I reckon the players take about 15% blame for the way they play, I make PDC 85% culpable as he has set the tactics, he has bought the players and he is the one sending them out with his words of wisdom...but more important, he is the one who is setting the tone of how these guys work during the week..and from what we are hearing, no-one connected with the club really enjoys going to work with him in charge
Still earn a lot more than I do and "hundreds of equal ability" is rubbish How many boards in the world publicly lambast managers? You never get a public statement about what a board has said to a manager - Not from the board anyhow. Had this happened then the club would be a laughing stock and it's the reason that the players complained about Di Canio down to his almost bullying tactics How do you know Kevin Ball is not the answer - his first name isn't Crystal!!! I personally don't think he is either and I very much doubt that Ellis is going to give him the job but he is Sunderland through and through. There was much much more than a simple disagreement between a player or two and the manager - BBC Radio Newcastle said last night that there was a massive mutiny against Di Canio's methods - to the tune of 90% of the first team squad - he has to accept some modicum of responsibility yet he blamed everyone but himself for our plight - had he said "Yeah I got that wrong" a couple of times instead of "The players aren't doing it right" or "they have rubbish between their ears" then we may have had a bit more sympathy
But then what's responsible for the 3 year horror show then? O'shea's performances fluctuate between leader on the pitch to Titus-esque calamitous. Gards' crowning glory is 'doing a job' at rb, Larsson spends more time complaining then grafting. Ji looks like he's never been on a football pitch in his life yet impressed in Germany, Wickham only on turns up if he comes off the bench. We all know Johnson is capable of so much more than he produces, Vaughan is so poor it's shocking yet he's raised his level to be effective in a few games so even he is capable of more and the less said about bardo the better. They've all failed three managers, except Johnson who's just finished failing his second manager. Three managers, three different styles. Same consistent failures all capable of better performances. This is in no way a PDC defence but 3 times now these players have spit the dummy and stop playing for a manager. Still think there's poison in the dressing room somewhere. Probably only one or two but it's enough draw others in. No poor or lazy attitudes? I see it everywhere myself. Lot of contracts expiring at the end of the season and I wouldn't renew a single one. Certainly at the inflated wages some of them are getting.
Lauighing because I agree totally and it's more of an exasperated laugh than a thinking it's really funny laugh!! I think Johnson was terrible for O'Neill and took the piss - but I've seen a few more glimpses this season and hopefully will see a lot more in the coming times. Sadly don;t think we can afford to let them all go (the expiring ones) but renegotiate lower wages defintely (I'd definitely keep Colback BTW)
I think we assumed htat was a given! I'm not so sure now, more so when you hear they didnt even contact anyone at Swindon or anywhere else to find out about the man before they took him on. They seem to have mistaken eccentricity and swagger for passion! It looks more and more like a panic selection.
