I don't believe in magic, astrology, voodooism, ghosts, paranormal activity, banshees, bermudan triangles, loch nessies, big foot, ufo's, or whatever. But I do wonder if my club is cursed!
I'd love to see those stats for Wilkinson! This guy won the Premier League title with Leeds, then went on to serve in some capacity for England, and suddenly became a disaster at Sunderland. I'd love to know the inside story on that one.
Yep, in theory, had he been given more time he might have turned it around. He only managed 27 games and lost 15 of them, maybe he would have gone on to manage 200 games and still only lost 15. Unfekin likely though
Isn't Ian McColl missing from that list, he signed Jim Baxter and his cousin George Kinnell, did he also bring Ally McCoist to the club, mind at my age memory plays tricks at times, so if I'm wrong please be kind.
**** me, but there's been some ****e at the club. Peter Reid is head and shoulders above everyone else, but kudos to Stokoe (cup win), Smith (G-Force, Div 3 to Div 1) and Durban (strong early 80s team, wins at Anfield if I remember right).
Yes, Dick Bols's list stops at Brown's second term here (1968-72). McColl did indeed sign Baxter - and a young Ian Porterfield from Raith Rovers. But McCoist was later (1980's). My own opinion is that sacking McColl to bring back Brown was the biggest post-war mistake Sunderland have ever made. I can excuse appointments like diCanio and Poyet - they were gambles on young managers with a good lower league record (just as Stokoe had been - he never managed anything above Third Division before us). But McColl wasn't that sort of gamble. He was ex-manager of Scotland, improving us all the time, and steadily moving us up the First Division. Sacking him was a plain, straightforward injustice.
Thanks Relic, so why did we get rid of McColl, does anyone remember the chant for George Kinnell, who played centre half I think it went Who the hell are we for We are forkinnell. See what they did there.
Alan Durban signed McCoist for £400k in 1981 and we sold him for £185k 2 years later. I remember Durban saying at the time that he was "one for the future". Well he certainly was but unfortunately not at our club.
I believe from memory what was given out by the Echo was that McColl "was too friendly with the press" (something that is required by contract by Sky/EPL today). Total bul**hit. The truth is the old-boys group that had replaced Ted Ditchburn and his supporters in the boardroom wanted their precious regimental sergeant-major back. If fans had had control of that club at that time, the entire board room would have been empty by Monday morning. That decision hit Sunderland like a ton of bricks. I've already said this on a thread a few weeks ago in answer to one of Commachio's excellent (inquisitive/probing) questions, but let me say it again : the first year McColl took over, we were third from bottom. The second year, we were sixth from bottom. The next year, they were ninth from bottom. The progress was slow, yes, but incessant. I hope you'll excuse my shouting, but it's how I and a lot of other supporters felt about it - it was FU**ING APPALLING. No way in this god-damned world did Ian McColl deserve that. Without doubt, McColl was the most unjustly treated Sunderland manager of all time.
The manager who got the push for friendliness with the press was George Hardwick who could be looked on as saving us on our return to Div1 in 1964. The board picked the team and did terribly but appointed him as a stand in and he steadied the team and turned the defence into something different, especially the full backs. The press involved was rumoured to be mainly Jackie Milburn of the News of the World and Arthur Appleton AKA Argus of the Echo. They were more up to date with the club than the board. In McColl's case, Charlie Hurley did not rate him and he allowed the team to fall into a clique mode with Baxter and Kinnell running the show and the team spirit that Brown created vanished. In his autobiography Charlie reckons that McColl once said he did not need the job as he was doing alright with his engineering company in Glasgow.
Monkey heed was superb for a time. Built some great teams with some outstanding players and some average ones that would bust a gut for the team. A very hands on type of manager with no heirs and graces (watch prem passions again and listen to all the effing and blinding). Not sure his and saxtons type of approach would be accepted today with all these ****ing overpaid nancy boy prima donnas. Along with player power. O.****e. Cattermole. Fletcher and co. Would **** a brick if someone with Reids approach was appointed and would be scampering down the corridors for a suckling on Maggies Byrnes tits will their tales of woe about how the nasty man shouted at them and called them nasty names and made them do some work. Saying that they would enjoy the drinking culture even more.
