Sunderland

[loki679]

Would the players, like, move around when Ben Arfa had the ball and stuff?

 

Doubtful.  Ben Arfa is our teams pause button.  We'd Fucking clean up if we built a musical statues team around him.

[Interpolic]

It's like Bernard's Watch (Ben Arfa's Watch) but unfortunately it affects only our own players.

[Kanj]

So can anyone just do a quick tactic run down of Poyet and Di Matteo? Just curious. Since one article has him linked I'm now curious his style of football (or lack thereof)

[merlin]

http://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport/football/newcastle-united/di-matteo-not-keen-on-sunderland-but-has-eye-on-pardew-s-newcastle-job-1-6085627

 

Di Matteo not keen on Sunderland – but has eye on Pardew’s Newcastle job!

 

Published on the 26  September 2013 08:20

 

ROBERTO Di Matteo does not fancy the vacant Sunderland job – amid rumours he would prefer to be Newcastle United manager.

 

The former West Brom and Chelsea boss was installed as the early favourite to succeed Paolo di Canio when the Black Cats’ head coach was ousted from his job on Sunday night.

 

But the Swiss-born Italian is unconvinced that the bottom-of-the-league club is the right move for him next, in the wake of having led Chelsea to Champions League success in his previous job.

 

Di Matteo was surprisingly sacked by Roman Abramovich last November, having given the Blues the Champions League trophy and the FA Cup in his eight months in charge.

 

The 43-year-old has spent the last 10 months taking a break from the game and considering his next challenge, and sources close to the Italian suggest he does not see Sunderland as it.

 

There have though been rumours that Di Matteo feels that Alan Pardew’s job at Newcastle could soon come up, and he is biding his time for that position.

 

Di Matteo has links to Sunderland through Roberto De Fanti.

 

He is an acquaintance of the Black Cats’ Director of Football and De Fanti is believed to have seen Di Matteo as the obvious choice to succeed Di Canio.

 

But with Sunderland receiving no encouragement from the ex-Blues boss so far, the club is now casting its net far and wide.

 

No appointment is likely before the weekend with Kevin Ball expected to be in the dug-out for the game against Liverpool and the ex-skipper could also be in charge when Manchester United come to visit.

 

Owner Ellis Short reacted quickly in removing Di Canio after the player revolt on Sunday showed that relations between the head coach and his players had broken down beyond repair.

 

But that has not allowed the club any time to prepare and immediately install a successor.

 

Short had already concluded that the Italian had to go after the a dreadful start to the season culminated in the 3-0 defeat at West Brom on Saturday.

 

But he and the board thought they would have the breathing space of the Liverpool and Man United games to find the right replacement as head coach.

 

The current situation is not ideal but with Kevin Ball – a candidate for the job himself – doing a fine job as interim head coach, the club is still likely to take its time and consider all options before replacing Di Canio.

 

Di Matteo would be a good shout IF he was prepared to accept Ashley's policies - he has won trophies and his teams play decent football.

 

About as good as we could get in any circumstances, let alone with this board/owner - the big question is whether he would be Ashley's choice...and we've still got Pardew sitting on the majority of an 8 year deal...

[Pilko]

Imagine if they appointed Bally as the fucking coach.

 

Be like the whole Sbragia situation all over again: a farce, so let's fucking have it!

[mrmojorisin75]

Di Matteo would be a good shout IF he was prepared to accept Ashley's policies - he has won trophies and his teams play decent football.

 

did his chelsea team play decent stuff?  i only recall them cliff thoburning their way to the CL tbh

[Guest Roger Kint]

RDM to Galatasaray on Sky this morning. Not convinced he would be an upgrade for us, or at least enough of one anyway.

[bowlingcrofty]

A bloke I work with is a genuine ITK for the Mackems and he seems to think it won't be Gus Poyet. He's not forthcoming with much more info yet though, cos I want to wedge on it when he tells me.

[Dr Venkman]

Forum bet 

[KDT]

With the structure of how the club is set up surely an Italian manager/head coach must be in the frame. The lad who Inter sacked last year has been linked.

[madras]

http://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/fascism-bad-again.815961/

 

In particular.....

Technology made it the most destructive, not fascism. Any form of nationalism lends itself to military campaigns. Only fucking nutters look for war, not football managers. What a shit article, and about as funny as death.

 

Fuck me, some of them are still rolling out excuses.

[merlin]

Di Matteo would be a good shout IF he was prepared to accept Ashley's policies - he has won trophies and his teams play decent football.

 

did his chelsea team play decent stuff?  i only recall them cliff thoburning their way to the CL tbh

 

You are surely not trying to say that we are playing better football under Pardew...??

I cannot believe that anyone would turn down a guy who has won the CL in favour of the status quo...or anyone else who might want to join NUFC as manager because of those who would accept the job, none would have RDM's record behind them.

 

As if supporters of Ashley's NUFC are in a position to turn down the likes of Di Matteo...!

[merlin]

RDM to Galatasaray on Sky this morning. Not convinced he would be an upgrade for us, or at least enough of one anyway.

Not an upgrade ? Compared to Pardew..?? I despair....

[Dokko]

Players have been asked who they want by Ellie short 

[BlueStar]

So they've gone straight from "We need someone who'll knock the players into shape and not take any of their shit" to "Let the players decide who manages them"?

[AyeDubbleYoo]

So they've gone straight from "We need someone who'll knock the players into shape and not take any of their shit" to "Let the players decide who manages them"?

 

Similar to how we used to hire manager, just go for the opposite of the last bloke.

[mrmojorisin75]

As if supporters of Ashley's NUFC are in a position to turn down the likes of Di Matteo...!

 

hm

[Incognito]

So they've gone straight from "We need someone who'll knock the players into shape and not take any of their shit" to "Let the players decide who manages them"?

 

Similar to how we used to hire manager, just go for the opposite of the last bloke.

 

We can only hope we go back to that way for our next managerial appointment.

[Deuce]

Players have been asked who they want by Ellie short 

 

Seems a decent enough guy, but he clearly has no clue how to run a club.

[Ketsbaia]

So they've gone straight from "We need someone who'll knock the players into shape and not take any of their shit" to "Let the players decide who manages them"?

 

Similar to how we used to hire manager, just go for the opposite of the last bloke.

 

Zola it is, then.

[leffe186]

So they've gone straight from "We need someone who'll knock the players into shape and not take any of their s***" to "Let the players decide who manages them"?

 

Similar to how we used to hire manager, just go for the opposite of the last bloke.

 

Zola it is, then.

 

Ossie Ardiles, surely?

[madras]

surely the opposite to Di canio would be mahatma gandhi (he plays for atletico goianiense in the same squad as john lennon)

[Guest reefatoon]

surely the opposite to Di canio would be mahatma gandhi (he plays for atletico goianiense in the same squad as john lennon)

 

Is that the same team that sold Jimmy Saville to Rotinhell Hotspur?

[Ryan]

 

surely the opposite to Di canio would be mahatma gandhi (he plays for atletico goianiense in the same squad as john lennon)

 

You just read this months FourFourTwo?

[Thomson Mouse]

Interesting stuff from a true ITK....

 

http://www.thesecretfootballer.com/articles/13468/black-cats-on-the-booze/

 

Black Cats on the booze

 

There are problems at Sunderland – big problems. The squad simply aren’t good enough on the pitch and, of even greater concern, they have too many players that do not have enough respect for the game.

 

It is no secret in football circles that there is a drinking culture at Sunderland that extends right through the core of the team. I’ve witnessed it in full swing as I’ve been in the same places drinking with many of them.

 

I can vividly remember being in Marbella when one Sunderland player ordered a Nebuchadnezzar of champagne for £75,000. Seriously. A waiter bought it out on a trolley and it took three of them to pour it every time he wanted to top up his glass.

 

And last season, after the team had been hammered on the Saturday, a friend sent me a picture of half a dozen Sunderland first-team players all holding up cigarettes and pints of beer in a pub during an all-day session on the Sunday.

 

You may also be shocked to discover how much some of these players are earning. There are whispers of £50,000, £60,000 and even £75,000-a-week contracts knocking around. The worrying thing for Sunderland’s owners is that if the team are relegated, which club would want to buy their players, both in terms of taking on a contract of that size and the quality of the player?

 

I knew that the players had not warmed to Paolo Di Canio. It would have been a most inconvenient culture shock for many of them on the day the Italian strode in with his double training sessions and penchant for fining players at the drop of a hat.

 

I heard that on the day the former West Ham United striker left his job as the manager of Swindon Town, his former players went out to celebrate.

 

Last season, the owner of a huge club told me that he was chatting to somebody at boardroom level at Sunderland who told him that they’d offered Di Canio £3 million to keep them in the Premier League as well as full settlement of his contract if he was sacked. The maths stacked up of course; it was a £5 million stake to win £100 million.

 

For all that, Di Canio, ultimately, sealed his own fate. Maybe he knew that the players had gone over his head and complained to the owners that the Italian was the wrong man for the job. When Di Canio walked towards the fans at West Bromwich after the 3-0 hammering on Saturday, I thought: “That’s it for you mate, I’m afraid”.

 

As soon as a manager makes that type of “What can I do?” gesture, either in an interview or to the fans, then, I’m sorry, he’s a dead man walking. The sympathy vote does not work in football and only serves to highlight – very publicly, too – an insecure ego.

 

I am reminded of Phil Brown berating his Hull City players on the pitch at Manchester City. He lost the dressing-room instantly – no pun intended – and, as a result of that, he lost his job also.

 

The Sunderland players, the core of that team, clearly have no interest in changing their ways. There are examples of this behaviour throughout football, perhaps most notably Fabio Capello’s insistence that the England team needed to knuckle down at tournaments and concentrate fully on the job in hand for the time that they were involved.

 

It would no longer be a holiday camp and, after all, it was only six weeks out of their lives. Surely they could handle that? They repaid him with what was, quite frankly, a collection of hugely sub-standard showings in major competitions, despite the fact that they had qualified for each tournament pretty comfortably.

 

There was never any doubt that Chelsea had the players to achieve great things

 

England had the talent to put up a better show and that was the ultimate giveaway to an underlying problem between the players and the manager. And it isn’t like Chelsea, either, where replacing a manager that the players refused to work for – Andre Villas-Boas – with their perfect “Yes man” – Roberto Di Matteo – resulted in a Champions League triumph.

 

There was never any doubt that Chelsea had the players to achieve great things. Nobody is talking about a European Cup at the Stadium of Light, of course. Success this season is entirely about Premier League survival.

 

But the point is that Sunderland simply do not have the players with the quality or commitment to make the odds of that happening any better than the outcome of the toss of a coin.