Sunderland

Sunderland’s first bit of bad news ahead of the Capital One Cup final came in Manuel Pellegrini’s press conference on Friday. As reported by Sky Sports, Pellegrini said:

Of course it is very important for the team to have Sergio again with us because he is a very important player..

It is something (Aguero's participation) I must decide and see the way he recovers from the work this week, if he is 100 per cent fit after his injury, to play the whole match.

City are a dangerous proposition as it is, but with their best player back in contention, they are something else entirely.

Manchester City are clear favourites to win the first piece of silverware of the season, given not only Aguero’s return to health, but the vast resources they have at their disposal. But can Sunderland overcome their wealthier rivals?

One of the first points they would look to is Wigan’s victory over City in last term’s FA Cup final, as Ben Watson’s goal capped off a damp squib of a season for City in which they had relinquished their Premier League title and gone out of the Champions League at the group stage.

However, that game shouldn’t have too much relevance to Sunday for no other reason than that City side was one at a low ebb—or as low as a side constructed at that cost could be. It was a ludicrously limp performance by Roberto Mancini’s side, possibly influenced by the Italian’s impending departure from the club, that pretty much everyone knew was coming before the game.

Mancini hadn’t so much lost the dressing room, he more had one foot out of it, so it was hardly a surprise that his team weren’t exactly fired up for what should have been a silver lining on a fairly gloomy cloud of a season.

Yet, there are some reasons for optimism for Sunderland, not least their good recent record against City. Sure, they have struggled as most teams have at the Etihad, but they have won their last four encounters at the Stadium of Light 1-0, which could be written off as something of a freak or an anomaly, but it does at least tell us that Gus Poyet’s side know how to beat Pellegrini’s boys.

If nothing else, Sunderland are likely to be fired up for the final, if Poyet’s comments last weekend are anything to go by. Poyet wasn’t happy after Sunderland lost their league encounter with Arsenal 4-1, claiming that the performance might well alter his approach for the City game.

He said, as per Sami Mokbel of the Mail Online:

Sometimes a good kick on the backside at the right time is good to wake you up. But until the game next week I cannot tell you which one it is.

But it is true our performance changed plenty of things in my mind. I tell you what — if the defeat at Arsenal does not help us we are going to be in trouble at Wembley. Badly.

It will be interesting to see exactly who Poyet picks. Lee Cattermole will come back into the side having been rested for the Arsenal game, while Ki-Sung Yeung should play alongside him to provide some craft in midfield.

Poyet might also choose to play Liverpool loanee Fabio Borini up front instead of the more obvious Jozy Altidore or Steven Fletcher. Altidore has not been particularly impressive this season, and you would think the City defence would be able to deal with his rather "unsubtle" style, while Fletcher isn’t fully fit.

Borini’s pace might provide more problems for the rather sluggish Martin Demichelis, should the Argentinean start at the back.

Sunderland will comfortably be second favourites to win at Wembley on Sunday, but they do have a few reasons for optimism.

The FA Cup is regarded as irrelevant by some, jaded and tired of the old "romance of the cup" line, and such a stance is understandable.

For the very top clubs, it is at best third on their list of priorities, with the financial rewards of the Premier and Champions Leagues taking precedence. For teams struggling against relegation, it could be seen as a distraction.

In any case, the wild disparity between the haves and the have-nots in English football make upsets—the very thing that still draws people in to the FA Cup and is the central part of the "romance"—less and less likely.

However, they do still happen, so which sides have the best prospect of springing a shock this weekend?

The biggest gap between two sides facing each other is non-league Kidderminster Harriers and Sunderland, with a massive 79 places separating the two in the English football ladder. Kidderminster manager Andy Thorn, who was part of the Wimbledon team that upset Liverpool in the 1988 final, told BBC Sport that this doesn't put him off:

Any one-off game can go any way as long as you prepare properly, believe in what you do and go there with determination.

In that run with Wimbledon. we were favourites to get knocked out in every game we played.

But if you go with belief and desire, once you get out there, with your supporters right behind you in their numbers, anything can happen.

Indeed, Sunderland could very much have their eye off the ball this weekend—they, of course, reached the Capital One Cup final on Tuesday, beating Manchester United on penalties, and are involved in a tough relegation battle in the Premier League.

While there is a massive gap between the two sides, either complacency or tiredness could creep in and give Kidderminster a chance.

There is likely to be an extra frisson of rivalry between the two sides over, of all things, a disagreement on tickets. Sunderland initially refused to give Kidderminster more than 3,000 tickets unless the Skrill Premier side paid for them in advance, representing a big financial risk for such a small club.

Kidderminster chairman Mark Serrell spoke with the Daily Mail about the situation last week:

This argument sours it. It seems like the magic of the FA Cup doesn’t extend to Premier League clubs.

There’s a chance we could sell 10,000, but we don’t know that for certain. To put pressure on us is unfair.

It’s not as if they will sell out the stadium so they’re losing ticket sales. If that was the case I could understand.

Kidderminster eventually took an allocation of 5,000, but as of Friday afternoon, they were still advertising tickets for sale on their official website.

Plenty of things apart from their relatively lowly league position would seem to count against Kidderminster, not least the departure of their star player and scorer of the winning goal against Peterborough in the previous round, Joe Lolley, who joined Huddersfield earlier this month.

However, it's almost impossible not to become swept up with Thorn's enthusiasm.

We've now got the chance to go and play at the Stadium of Light, one of the best grounds in the country. And I hope we can go and do ourselves justice. But there's so much more to do with this team. I've hardly got started yet.

Maybe, just maybe, they could do it.

Amid the chaos of Paolo Di Canio’s reign at Sunderland, nobody really talked about the tactics–yet in some ways that was the most disappointing aspect.

We knew he would be difficult to get on with, we expected his dictatorial approach would rub players up the wrong way, we knew there would be tantrums and ructions. But tactics were the thing he was supposed to be good at: this was a man, after all, who came top of his class when completing his coaching certificate at Coverciano.

Perhaps there was some greater purpose. Perhaps in time, it would have been clear what Di Canio’s strategy was. He spoke of how he tried to do too much too soon in his time at Swindon; it may be he was phasing in tactical changes and that by Christmas he would have moved away from the 4-4-2 with which he began the season.

Maybe the issue was the players not doing what he wanted them to do—his attack on Cabral, the holding midfielder brought in from Basel, certainly suggested a deep-lying frustration. After all, whatever else he is, Di Canio is no fool: he might not understand footballers, but he understands football. Whatever the reason, the fact is that each of the five league games he was in charge of this season, Di Canio played a 4-4-2 and in every single one of them Sunderland were, if not overrun in midfield, then at least vulnerable to opponents coming at them through the middle.

He tried various pairings of Cabral, Sebastian Larsson, David Vaughan, Craig Gardner and Ki Sung-Yeung but none were quite right. Cabral lacked physicality, Larsson is slow (and his crossing so good he is surely better deployed wide), Vaughan lacking in physical presence, Gardner lacked composure, Ki lacked pace. Pair any two of them and there was an always an element missing, which perhaps explains why, by the end, Di Canio had offered an olive branch to Lee Cattermole, a player who, for all his recklessness, can be a top-class holding midfielder, playing with energy and purpose.

Or there was another option, which was to leave out a centre-forward and play a third central midfielder, which is what Kevin Ball did when he took over as caretaker manager. There had been patches of games under Di Canio—the 20 minutes after half-time against Arsenal most notably, when Sunderland found an equaliser and forced Arsenal into the back foot—when they had attacked with great gusto, when fans could draw positives.

But even then there had been an air of frenzy about their play, a sense that at any moment the storm could blow out. Although Sunderland lost both games under Ball, at home to Liverpool and Manchester United, there were at least periods of both when Sunderland played well and had a measure of control. It helped, of course, that he had Cattermole back—and fit—but in a sense his task was made easier by the injury to Steven Fletcher—which meant Ball never had to decide which of his two front-line strikers to drop.

If Gus Poyet plays a 4-3-3, as he tended to at Brighton, that leaves him with a major decision for Saturday’s game at Swansea. Fletcher and Jozy Altidore are two of Sunderland’s best, highest-profile and most expensive players and the temptation to play both is understandable. One, though, must be left out—perhaps even to play in tandem as Shane Long and Romelu Lukaku did at West Brom last season, one wearing out the opposition before making way for the fresher man to come and make hay.

Poyet’s other problem is that, after a start that has yielded a single point in seven games, there is no margin for error. There is some comfort for Sunderland in that they are only three points worse off than in equivalent fixtures last year, but if they are to stay up, Poyet has to find the right balance and quickly. It will almost certainly be with three in midfield.

Gus Poyet was formally announced as Sunderland manager on Tuesday morning—and his appointment was met with the odds on the Black Cats beating relegation taking a hit.

Sunderland are at the foot of the table with seven matches played in the Premier League this season, but despite a horror start in which they've taken just one point, there are still 27 games—and 81 points—to play for, and only six points needed to escape the drop zone.

But the odds are perhaps a reflection of the gloomy prospects at the Stadium of Light, given Paolo Di Canio's summer squad overhaul and sudden departure in September.

That said, back in summer they were generally at around 5/1 to be relegated, and as you can see from this Oddschecker historical graph, even after early defeats they could be backed at around 9/2 to go down.

By the time Di Canio left, that situation had worsened drastically. On the weekend of his departure the odds of relegation had shortened to the point that they were hovering around evens.

And now that Poyet has been installed, the odds have tipped a little further so they are odds-on for the drop.

You can see all of this represented in graph form above, with five leading British bookmakers shown.

On the one hand it is understandable that Sunderland, who added no points in the two games taken by interim manager Kevin Ball, have slightly bleaker prospects of beating the drop than they did in September.

On the other, the defeats came at the hands of Manchester United and Liverpool, both of whom would have been favourites in any case.

But often a new manager gives players and supporters a boost of confidence and performance, and with 27 matches of a season left, the odds on winning a title or beating relegation should be to some extent governed by confidence.

All odds quoted found on Oddschecker.

On Monday various outlets, including Sky, reported that Gus Poyet was poised to be appointed Sunderland manager—possibly by Tuesday.

Poyet, who parted ways with Brighton & Hove Albion in bizarre circumstances in June, appears set to beat out the likes of Roberto Di Matteo, Rene Meulensteen, Tony Pulis and Gianfranco Zola for the job vacated by Paolo Di Canio last month.

Sunderland chief executive Margaret Byrne reportedly made initial contact with Poyet on September 24—two days after relieving Di Canio of his duties following a players’ revolt—and has since sought a reference from Brighton supremo Paul Barber, who was responsible for the Uruguayan’s exit at both Tottenham Hotspur during the Juande Ramos era and at Falmer Stadium during the summer.

Black Cats director of football Roberto De Fanti has since recommended Poyet to club owner Ellis Short. Although, the time spent in finalizing the appointment may be reflective of the differing opinions on the 45-year-old (Mirror).

Reportedly impressed with the success Poyet delivered at Brighton during parts of four seasons between 2009 and 2013 (Telegraph), Short has also been advised that the former Spurs assistant is both more tactically acute than Di Canio and significantly less confrontational.

Both attributes, however, depend on whom is being asked.

In a May interview with The Independent, on-loan left-back Wayne Bridge insisted Poyet had “revitalized” his love of football, adding, “He got me to focus and enjoy my football. He is a top-class manager both tactically and on the man-management side—one of the best I have worked with.”

This, no doubt, is the sort of recommendation Poyet would prefer his prospective bosses to hear.

Popular with many of his players, he improved The Seagulls’ fortunes during each of his campaigns on the South Coast and also proved an astute, creative recruiter in the transfer market.

But his relationship with the hierarchy at his former club deteriorated over time, to the point where he claimed to have been sacked while working for the BBC during the Confederations Cup—six weeks after a playoff exit to Crystal Palace and frequent clashes with Brighton chairman Tony Bloom (Guardian).

“It’s the way I am,” he said at the time. “I am a coach, an honest person. I work the way I do. Everybody knows how I treat the players.”

And not all of them have appreciated his style.

Following the Palace loss, former Brighton winger Vicente described Poyet as “selfish” and “egocentric.”

“He is the worst person I’ve come across in football,” he told The Argus. “For example, he deceived me when he said I could go and then didn’t let me. I was four months out and injured and he wasn’t capable of coming up and asking how I was.”

He continued: “What I think is unacceptable is that the manager makes fun of his players. I’ve seen things here that I have never seen in my career. If you miss a shot in training, he makes fun. For me, that is unacceptable in football.”

Sunderland, it would appear, are willing to take the chance that Bridge’s version of their number-one managerial target will be the one that arrives at the Stadium of Light.

But in their effort to appoint the anti-Di Canio, they may not be going quite far enough.

Sunderland have announced the appointment of former Brighton boss Gus Poyet as their new manager, as confirmed by the club's official website.

A club statement read:

Sunderland AFC has today announced the appointment of Gustavo Poyet as head coach.

The 45 year-old has agreed a two-year contract at the Stadium of Light and will take charge of the Black Cats with immediate effect.

According to the club website, Poyet will be joined at the Stadium of Light by his backroom staff Mauricio Taricco and Charlie Oatway.

The news had been expected on Monday evening, when John Percy of the Daily Telegraph reported via Twitter that Poyet would be unveiled imminently:

Sunderland chairman Ellis Short briefly commented on the appointment in Tuesday's statement, saying: “We analysed a wide range of candidates and believe that Gus's track record, experience, commitment and passion make him the right man to take us forward."

Poyet, 45, left Brighton in unusual circumstances, having appeared to be sacked live on television during the Confederations Cup. However, with the departure of Paolo Di Canio from Sunderland after just five games this season, he makes a swift return to club management.

It will be a far from easy task for Poyet to take on, however, with Sunderland bottom of the table having earned just one point from their opening seven games of the campaign.

Difficult games against Swansea (away) and neighbours Newcastle (home) follow the international break, so Poyet will have to immediately find his stride to avoid the club's situation worsening further.

Poyet will be expected to come in and hastily unify the dressing room and coach the Black Cats to Premier League survival following a summer in which they made an incredible 14 new signings, offloading several senior players.

At Brighton, the former Chelsea and Tottenham midfielder oversaw the club's rise from League One to the Championship playoff semifinals over the course of three seasons.

However, within days of Brighton's playoff defeat last term, Poyet was suspended by the club and was relieved of his position on June 23, when the Seagulls published a statement announcing his sacking.

Over the past two weeks, Poyet had been quick to declare his interest in the Sunderland job and pushed his credentials in the media. Per ESPNFC's Kristan Heneage, he told South American radio station Sport 890:

It's a new team, very international, and it would be convenient for the new person to speak various languages. You wouldn't need to have translators continually. 

That is something that helps me, because I have that ability. But there are things that go against me, for example the fact that I've never managed in the Premier League.

Since Di Canio's sacking, Poyet had been among the leading candidates for the position and emerged as the firm favourite in recent days.

In his relatively short managerial career he has shown an ability to galvanise a squad and introduce tactically intelligent football, while signings such as Vicente at Brighton display his knowledge of the foreign market.

Always a bullish character, even as a player, his personality will help lift the gloomy mood currently at Sunderland, which is crucial when fighting a relegation battle.

Ousted Sunderland manager Paolo Di Canio broke his silence Tuesday, telling Sky Sports in a statement that his time at the Stadium of Light had been “unfairly cut short” and that he was keen to return to management as soon as possible, preferably in England.

“I remain confident in my ability and I want to manage again in England as soon as I can,” he said. “When things like this happen it is important to take something positive from it. I have learned a lot from my brief time at Sunderland and I am sure that this will only make me a better manager in my next job.”

It had better, or his chances of taking over an English club will be next to nil.

Di Canio’s no-fun boot-camp approach to training didn’t exactly go over well with Sunderland’s players. In an interview with Chris Young of the Shields Gazette, club captain John O’Shea confirmed the squad had mutinied following last month’s 2-1 loss away to West Bromwich Albion—a match that included a bizarre confrontation between the Italian and the traveling supporters.

“That was obviously done,” he said when asked if he and his teammates had taken a stand against their controversial former manager. “But we have to move on now.”

Di Canio, for his part, denied any such row, claiming in his statement, “There was no training ground bust-up.” He insisted that many of the Sunderland players had since sent him text messages thanking him for helping them improve as footballers.

Some of them may have, but they’d almost certainly be in the minority.

Beyond a handful of decent results, including a memorable win away to Newcastle last season, Di Canio’s time at Sunderland will be mostly remembered for the controversy surrounding his appointment (due mostly to his political views) and that peculiar altercation with the club’s fans at The Hawthorns.

As chief executive Margaret Byrne told the BBC, the environment at the club had become “brutal and vitriolic.” Following a team meeting on Sunday, she was approached by senior players about the situation. Di Canio was sacked later the same day.

The 45-year-old maintains that much of what has been reported about him in recent days has been “wholly untrue” and, as he added in his statement, he is confident he would have been able to turn things around at the Stadium of Light if given more time.

“I am certain that had I been allowed longer, I would have been able to develop the team to achieve the success Sunderland fans desire,” he said.

Di Canio ran Sunderland like a dictator runs a state. And, perhaps appropriately, he was ousted by a palace coup.

It’s a style that will never work in England—or in much of modern European football—and unless he can reform his approach, he will struggle to find work in the country he wants to work in most.

A Paolo Di Canio and Sunderland Football Club divorce was a sure thing this side of Christmas. 

The Italian was brought in to save an ailing side from relegation late last season, and his fiery, explosive character was the perfect match for a club in serious danger of dropping into the Championship.

But long term? It was always going to be difficult to buy into the Di Canio way of doing things for a season or more.

And over the course of just 12 games in charge, he managed to alienate more than a dozen people.

Here, we chart the decline of Di Canio's relationship with the Premier League, the fans and, most importantly, the club and its players.

Early Controversies

Upon accepting the job, Di Canio was perhaps unfairly probed and lambasted for his political stance. It had been an issue at Swindon Town and now, according to the BBC, he had refused to answer questions on his beliefs in his opening set of press conferences.

Those anticipating an exploding bomb behind the microphone were pleasantly surprised, and some were led to believe it was a toned-down version of the man who pulled off a Fascist salute to his hometown crowd at Rome's Stadio Olimpico.

How wrong they were.

He started by telling The Express that Martin O'Neill had crafted an unfit, physically poor side. After taking the lead in his first game at Stamford Bridge, his side were unable to maintain a high tempo and eventually succumbed to a loss, leading to him grumbling: "It was impossible to maintain our first-half performance. It’s not the fittest team in the world."

Before Sunderland travelled to Villa Park for a crunch Monday night clash in the relegation struggle, Di Canio likened visiting the claret and blue side to enjoying a Pavarotti concert.

"I’m not worried about Villa Park," he told the Sunderland Echo. "It's an easy place to go."

The Black Cats lost 6-1, had Stephane Sessegnon sent off and Christian Benteke scored a hat-trick. Surviving the drop became a doubt.

Upon season's end, with Sunderland safe for another year, the Italian launched into a 24-minute tirade in his press conference, telling Miguel Delaney of ESPN that his squad's attitude is "disgusting" and that he'd performed a "miracle" to keep them up.

That shunning of blame and quickness to claim credit became a recurring theme in his reign.

Fresh Start?

Di Canio, perhaps spurred on by his derogatory comments, recruited 14 new players over the summer to change the fortunes of his squad.

Some were well-known, astute signings such as Emmanuele Giaccherini, Jozy Altidore and Ki Sung-Yeung (loan), while others were gambles in the form of unproven or upcoming talents.

There were no especially horrific performances on display, but it's fair to say the players failed to adjust and jell in such climate-shock conditions.

What a new collection of players needs at this point is probably an arm round the shoulder—what they got was public criticism and singling out.

John O'Shea was blasted by Di Canio after receiving a red card and conceding a penalty in the away loss to Crystal Palace, and the Italian told Sky Sports that he'd continue to take such an approach.

Sessegnon, one of the club's best players, was sold on transfer deadline day after former Lazio star Di Canio was left unimpressed by the Benin international's desire and attitude, reported Sky Sports.

One of his own signings, Cabral, was then hounded for a poor performance, and Sky Sports revealed some alarming quotes: "Maybe one day, if he can show me that he understands football, then yes he will play again."

After losing 3-0 to West Bromwich Albion, The Telegraph understands Di Canio blamed Lee Cattermole for the third goal, and the players finally took a stand.

He Made It an Easy Choice

Sunderland, rooted to the foot of the table with just a single point from five matches, have used a whopping 21 different players in the Premier League so far.

Kieran Westwood has been asked to replicate Simon Mignolet's heroics, five different strikers have started and even new signings—of his own scouting and volition—have been singled out.

Di Canio has left the building blocks of a very strong squad, deep in both numbers and talent, but he expected too much too soon and refused to shoulder the blame.

It's been a crazy few months, Paolo.

Follow @stighefootball

Former Chelsea favourite Roberto Di Matteo is the front-runner for the vacant Sunderland job after Paolo Di Canio's own players reportedly called his bluff following Saturday’s defeat to West Brom.

Di Canio will head back into the club one final time on Monday to tie up loose ends, while Sunderland’s director of football, Roberto De Fanti, is keen to lure Di Matteo into the hot seat, according to Ian Murtagh of the Daily Star:

Black Cats director of football Roberto Di Fanti (sic) is close to former Chelsea boss Roberto Di Matteo, with reports in Italy claiming he has already been lined up to take over at the Stadium of Light.

Di Matteo, who won the Champions League during his last full season at Stamford Bridge, has 10-11 odds with Sky Bet to replace his countryman, who was axed on Sunday night after a dire start to the 2013-14 campaign:

Sunderland AFC confirms that it has parted company with Head Coach Paolo Di Canio this evening.

— Sunderland AFC (@SAFCofficial) September 22, 2013

Sami Mokbel of the Daily Mail reports Di Canio’s downfall was sparked by his own crisis meeting with the Sunderland squad, which resulted in the Italian challenging his players to call for his head:

The summit quickly turned sour after Di Canio pointed the finger at a number of his players, blaming them for their poor start to the season.

A clutch of his players, however, are understood to have responded angrily at Di Canio’s dressing down, telling the Italian in no uncertain terms what they thought of him.

[...]

Di Canio is then said to have told his disgruntled players to tell the club’s hierarchy to sack him if they no longer wanted him in charge.

Certainly Sunderland needed a change. One point from the opening five games is an accurate reflection of how poor they have been this season, despite 14 summer signings. The frustration among supporters was evident at the final whistle at the Hawthorns.

Saturday’s 3-0 thumping by West Brom came against a side who had also looked totally out of sorts, as the Baggies had not won prior to the weekend. Di Canio’s men, though, were distinctly second best.

One of the criticisms Di Canio had of his Sunderland squad was a lack of focus, as he accused them of falling to pieces after West Brom scored their first goal. He reportedly tried to stop his players speaking to club staff on match days in order to improve concentration, according to Paul McCarthy on Sky Sports News and Colin Young of the Daily Mail.

Di Canio said after the weekend loss, per Mokbel’s article: “The players need to release the rubbish from their brains. They have to have more confrontation, more anger with each other.”

If Sunderland do appoint Di Matteo this week, his first job will be to galvanise the squad and focus their minds ahead of Liverpool's visit in their next league game.

The Black Cats first have a midweek League Cup tie with Peterborough to address, for which Kevin Ball will take charge. Clashes with Liverpool and Manchester United follow that fixture, handing the new man a baptism by fire.

However, Sunderland’s next manager will inherit a squad united enough to send their former boss packing, as well as a group of players likely to be delighted to see a new face at the helm.

There will be no expectation on them to win either of their next two league games, which will take all pressure away and potentially create the right type of conditions for a shock result.