OâSHEA: SHORT WAS BRAVE TO DUMP OâNEILL #safc JOHN OâSHEA has praised ruthless Sunderland owner Ellis Short for his decision to appoint Paolo Di Canio last season. The call to sack Martin OâNeill and replace him with the relatively unproven and controversial Italian was a risky one â but Di Canioâs side picked up eight points in the final seven games, just enough to keep them in the Premier League. Di Canio was the American billionaireâs fourth managerial appointment in just over four years. He first helped boot out Roy Keane, then dumped Ricky Sbragia and Steve Bruce, and finally ditched OâNeill last year. The ex-Villa and Celtic boss had won just seven games all season when he was sacked, with the club on an eight game no-win streak that included humiliating defeats to relegation rivals QPR and Reading. âAs the owner of the club he must have a say in things,â OâShea said of Short. âIt was a brave call for him to make with so little of the season left â going from an experienced manager for a young, up and coming manager. âThat is why he has been successful in business. âYou donât get to where he is, to have his stature being owner of a Premiership football club unless you make some tough calls. âHe made one and it turned out to be good. âWithin the first couple of games, we should have got something from the Chelsea game, then we beat Newcastle and Everton. âThat straight away got the fans onside. Everyone could focus on what you want to do to get the club in a better position.â Many Sunderland fans protested the appointment of the Italian, who had previously admitted his support for Italian fascism, with club vice-chairman and Labour politician David Miliband resigning his post. âMr Miliband was always going to leave the club at a certain point and politicians are clever enough to see a bit of limelight there, a stage set for him, and he used it to get the most from it,â OâShea claimed. âHeâs not the first politician to do something like that. âBut the way football operates, the thing it comes down to is results, straight away.â Results improved, but OâShea wants better this season. Having won five Premier league titles with Manchester United, sleepless nights inspired by a relegation battle is not something he wants to get used to. âBeing involved in a relegation battle is extremely stressful, I am not going to lie about it,â he admitted. âThe last five, six games, you are checking everyone elseâs fixtures and who is playing who, what you think you are going to get and then seeing Wigan win game after game and think, surely they cannot do it. âThat gave us the appetite in pre-season to work hard and make sure we get what we want out of it to stay away from the dogfight. âIf we are in the relegation zone again in April then we will look very silly but you hope to have improved. âThere will be plenty of competition because other clubs have improved too, but we have to be confident we can survive.â http://www.ciarano.me/post/57962997259/oshea-short-was-brave-to-dump-oneill-safc
I was looking at prem teams signings today on ssn and its given me some added optimism about this season. Stoke and Fulham haven't done any business of note, Newcastle haven't improved and Palace and Hull have a lot of work to do to be strong enough to stay up. Everton are going backwards imo and with all the changes at the top I think we'll see the "big boys" dropping points this year. A good result against Fulham is huge for us cos our run of home fixtures after are shocking.
Was looking the other day and Fulham are a team who have added mind They have a significant amount of the midfield gone but they have also signed some quality in that Amoriebeta (god knows his name), Stekelnburg and Boateng, also signing Reither permanently is marvellous business for them Swansea/West Ham/Norwich the ones to watch though
I think that bodes well for a very strong second half of the season. What with our fitness and gelling time. If we can scrape through the first half of the season and be around mid table then I fancy us to make a late charge for the top 8
