Tuesday 17 March 2015

Sunderland AFC - the football managers' graveyard


There used to be an old joke that the Sunderland Empire was the graveyard of comedians. Well, Sunderland AFC's Stadium of Light certainly seems to be the graveyard of football managers, with the club having just sacked their fifth manager in six years. All of them were good managers before they came to Sunderland (perhaps with the exception of Paolo Di Canio), but the fact that not one of them were able to get a grip on the club suggests that there's something rotten about the whole set-up there. Perhaps it's the owner, Ellis Short, who is to blame, along with Lee Congerton, the Director of Football. The players too, need to take their fair share of blame - most of them are nothing more than a bunch of pampered and over-paid show-ponies - because at the minute, it looks like they can't be arsed to break into a sweat.
Dick Advocaat - ex Rangers and Holland national team coach - has just been appointed until the end of the season, in an effort to avoid relegation, and to keep the seat warm for Steve MacClaren, the wally with the brolly.

Things are looking desperate.

(The photograph above is a glove puppet coloured in by Steve Bruce, Sunderland's most successful manager of recent times. It was done for a fund-raising event for Norwich Puppet Theatre)




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