Gus Poyetâs early learning curve as a Premier League manager was steep, teaching him within a fortnight of moving in at Sunderland in October how much more important it was to have beaten Newcastle in his second match than merely losing 4-0 at Swansea in his first. Since then the curve seemed to have levelled out, along with results â until the past few days. Poyet had rashly assumed that avoiding relegation was the priority for a manager taking over the Premier Leagueâs bottom club, only to discover that steering the same team to Wembley for Sundayâs Capital One Cup final against Manchester City has sent the city into a time-warp, telling tales of Bob Stokoe, Jim Montgomery and the boys of â73. The league more important? âIt is, but not up in Sunderland,â he said with a mystified air after his preoccupied players had crashed and burned 4-1 at Arsenal on Saturday. âI learnt that in the last week. I thought it was only one thing, [to] stay in the Premier League. Apparently for a manager it is better to win the Cup, because you become more famous.â So famous, in fact, that there is a statue of Stokoe outside the Stadium of Light, even though he spent all his three full seasons as manager there in the Second Division. âI am learning,â Poyet said. His second lesson was that he must start planning for the final all over again. Having assumed Saturdayâs starting XI would be desperate to play themselves into the side for Wembley, he found in the first half that most seemed to be doing the opposite. âThe idea was for them as a team to put themselves in the line-up for next week, so I was expecting them at least to do the basics,â he said. Instead it proved a good game to miss, like Lee Cattermole (left out because the referee Andre Marriner âwas one who normally sends him offâ), or at least to enter at half-time with the game already lost, as Sebastian Larsson and Emanuele Giaccherini did to good effect. âI say to them sorry,â Poyet said. âDonât just throw me out there against Arsenal when we are 3-0 down and cannot pass it three yards. But credit to them, they gave us something extra and [themselves] an opportunity for next week.â The boys of â73 beat Manchester City, then Arsenal and Leeds, two of the Leagueâs top three teams, during their FA Cup run. Their heirs looked a very long way off such heroics on Saturday.
TBH, as much as I want us to lift the League Cup & get to the FA Cup final & win that too, my priority is staying up. Some may have a different opinion & that's fine by me. And I'll tell you something else, that Europa League bollox scares the **** out of me. **** prize money & if you want to get to the latter stages, it's an extra 20 odd games to play. We haven't got the squad to cope with 60 games plus the domestic cups. Stay up is a must, at all costs.
I actually think poyet is talking bollocks on this one,every blog site i have been reading the majority has stated they would prefer to stay up and that the cup/cups are a bonus.
Premier League safety is my number one priority, a win in either cup would just be a bonus but EPL survival has to be priority.
Agree 100% Billy. I reckon Gus also thought that which why this bit of what he said stood out for me - `Having assumed Saturdayâs starting XI would be desperate to play themselves into the side for Wembley, he found in the first half that most seemed to be doing the opposite. âThe idea was for them as a team to put themselves in the line-up for next week, so I was expecting them at least to do the basics,â It seems like we agree and Gus agrees but the players didn`t. They`ve done themselves no favours. The next team selection could be interesting.
He has a point!! There is no doubt the short-term objective SHOULD be stay to stay in the premiership. However, if we do manage to overcome the odds on Sunday, as a Sunderland manager, his name will be immortalised in our history regardless of whether we stay up or not. Certainly, much more so than if we get beat, but manage to stay up. He also has a point in fact all talk has been around the cup final in the past month and the demand and hysteria around the tickets will not have gone unnoticed by manager and players alike. Certainly, the passion shown by fans (non-season ticket holders) to get tickets has been nothing short of unbelievable in many cases people are will to as much as cost of a season ticket, just to get there. So regardless of what we know should be the correct focus for the season, the general facts speak different.
Whilst I'd rather stay up than win the cup - this week the only priority is the cup as it's the next game. League cup is number one priority atm and after that's over the FA Cup is the next game - then the league ius a priority - of course in financial terms the league is the most important thing. Goes without saying with a prize money in the League Cup of less than 3 days of Wayne Rooneys pay. Our fans want to win the cup and stay up - that's all there is to it. Gus maybe doesn;t understand our reactions to certain things - He also has to remember that Stokoe was legendary in what he did - and also that the FA Cup held much higher esteem back then than it does now - sky (and BT more recently) are to thank for that
I don't get this priority ****? We have a deprecate game from the league on Sunday and it's a cup final and I want the lads to bust a gut to win it.
The fans want both, simple as that, i.e. win something (once in a generation event!) AND stay in the Prem. Not remotely puzzling. What is puzzling is the players' attitude. They should try to win every game, whatever the circumstances, and until they get that into their thick heads, we'll always bloody struggle.
Howay... I'd prefer Newcastle won a cup. Why? Because no matter what happens, they'll always be in a league. Winning something lasts longer than it takes to drop out of the traditional leagues and work your way back to the premier league
to be honest, I am glad we crashed a burned against Arsenal rather than any of next 3 league games. We could have played to the best we could against Arsenal and still lost, so rather we ****ed up against them than against palace, norwich and west ham.
