Few interesting points.....Forced to sell Bent and co? The headmaster: Sam Allardyce reveals the secret to Martin O'Neill's stunning start with Sunderland Sam Allardyce Martin O'Neill has made the sort of start at Sunderland that managers dream about and already people are trying to work out his recipe for instant success. Do I think he's special? Definitely. Martin has the X-factor. He gets into the players' heads, which is crucial if you want to get the best out of them. I said in an earlier column how important the psychological aspects of management are and Martin is one of the best in that department. He has come in to Sunderland and exceeded expectations. When you go into a new club the first job is to work out what you can do with the players available. The reason you've got the job is because things haven't been going well so there is probably a lot of negativity, together with a lack of confidence. You don't have long. You have to quickly assess the players, get them out there and then keep everything crossed that you can get that first win because that changes everything. A fantastic piece of skill from Seb Larsson in the dying seconds of Martin's first match against Blackburn last month provided him with the perfect start. Earlier in that game Sunderland had enjoyed a bit of good fortune - something which seemed to have deserted Steve Bruce - when the referee ruled out a perfectly good goal by Chris Samba. That would have made it 2-0 and probably game over but instead two brilliant pieces of skill from David Vaughan and then Larsson gave Martin just what he was hoping for. That win lifted everybody at Sunderland and Martin has taken it from there. He will have managed the situation - asked the players to deliver again by working harder for each other. After that came an unlikely but even more rewarding win over title favourites Manchester City, again with a goal right at the death. Suddenly all the players started believing in themselves again and Martin's probably thinking: "This squad are a lot better than I thought they might be." He's tinkered with the team, sometimes through necessity, picked players that Steve may not have done - and it has worked. The three factors - managing the situation, the ability of the players plus a lucky break or two - have all come together. In addition, Martin has obviously made the players feel good about themselves on the back of their great results. When I went in to Blackburn, just over three years ago, we lost only one of the first seven matches. We didn't win quite as many as Martin has done but it still gave me the platform I needed. Having said all that, Steve is a good friend of mine. I've been in touch with him since he left Sunderland. He has gone on holiday now, bitterly disappointed and probably thinking: 'Why didn't I get that little bit of luck?' It wasn't for the want of trying but sometimes, it just doesn't happen for you. Just a word of caution, though. Historically, switching managers in mid-season doesn't work. It did when I went to Blackburn and it looks like working at Sunderland but changing horses in January doesn't often have the effect people think it does. Mark Hughes said he wants to be at Queens Park Rangers for the long term which, in the modern day, is about 1.3 years. If you reach two years, that's really long term. I have some sympathy for Neil Warnock because he was desperate to prove to himself that he could handle the top level. It certainly wasn't easy for him. When the new regime bought the club at the end of August, a larger budget became suddenly available but almost too late. Neil did as much business as he could in what was an almost impossibly short time before the transfer window closed. When that happens everyone holds the manager responsible for the consequences. That happened at Sunderland, where Steve had to part with players such as Darren Bent, Jordan Henderson and Asamoah Gyan because of the club's financial problems. In Mark's case, I read he has been given substantial resources in this window but where can you spend the money even if you have it? It's a difficult window for managers although it can work. I remember it saved me one year at Blackburn when I brought in Gael Givet and El Hadji Diouf. When I went there, I was aware that Blackburn had been fairly successful under Sparky so as well as imposing my ideas I also decided to use some of the things which he had instigated for training. Mark has his own team and his own training ideas, as they are finding out at QPR. Away from the pitch, Mark will be aware of some of the fall-out from Joey Barton's tweeting. I don't know if he will advise Joey to stop using Twitter altogether. Players' contracts include confidentiality clauses so my view is that tweeting does little harm unless the club are mentioned in a negative way. Mark will have some difficult times, we all do as managers, so I wish him all the best at QPR. I'd say the same for Martin but, the way things are going at Sunderland, he doesn't need me to wish him luck.
A good read COMM, I would be interested to know where Sam got the idea there were financial problems at our club. Ellis Short has given Bruce more than enough to enter the market. His big problem was that one or two who have left, have not been replaced. Martin O'Neill has had the same players to work with and has made a better fist of things. You can sit and pass all the coaching badges in the world,but you still need man management skills to augment things. Sadly Bruce was definately lacking in this depaetment.
As his buddy, fat Sam won't blame Bruce but we all know that his time here was tits up big time 7 or 8 months before he got the boot. It wasn't a lack of onew that drove bent, Gyan and Welbeck out, it was a lack of man management, tactical ability and any kind of long term planning that did for him in the end. I wish those twats from outside the club, looking in and talking bollocks about us, would piss off and concentrate on their own **** for once.
the mention of financial problems is a little troubling to hear..yet you would think that if this was the case then either Bruce would have somehow brought this to public attention to deflect some of the crap he was getting at the time. I also don't think for one second MoN would have come here if we were "in financial trouble"
....Very interesting and totally relevant Managers like Clough and Shankly were the antithesis of the tweeting generation THEY were the only ones that said anything and players were expected to do their speaking on the pitch with graft Bent for all his goals enjoyed the tweet and didnt mind what it did to anyone else I think that side of him was probably why Redknap got rid of him He`d be murder for anybody trying to build a team. MON builds in the same way as the good managers and guess what? He generates his own "luck" and "feel good" quality....God if you look back at the last administration from the top to the bottom there was BLAB...managers talking about targets , players talking about Europe +++ .....Look at the way SAF dampens it all down...Good read..
It was the financial troubles that stood out for me... that's if financial troubles include selling 2 players for 44million quid, and sending one out on loan for half his transfer fee... 'trouble' isnt the word I think of when I see that. 'Smarts' would such word. Fat Sam can **** off, im glad we didn't get him years ago when we were looking to replace Ricky.
