Salut! Sunderland cannot pretend to know what substance there is to speculation that Dick Advocaat has resolved to leave tomorrow evening if Sunderland fail yet again to record a win.
The timing of the rumours – see http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/dick-advocaat-set-quit-sunderland-6562426 which may be as good an account as exists – could hardly be less helpful.
A bottom-placed team sent out to face unexpected high fliers would probably prefer to engage battle as part of a settled unit. If Advocaat really has let it be known he is ready to go if the game goes the wrong way, that would be deeply unhelpful to the club, players and supporters – and also incredibly unprofessional.
Let us hope for one of two scenarios:
* that the whispers are misplaced, that the players know them to be so and will go hell for leather to secure that much-needed win against West Ham
* that it is true but the players raise their game anyway and someone really good is lined up (I am not sure I mean Sean Dyche by that, but who knows?)
The broader question, of course, is whether we’d be better off with or without Advocaat.
On that, Monsieur Salut is undecided but would appreciate the thoughts of the Salut! Sunderland jury.
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DISMAYED.
Advocaat is a top class manager with a great pedigree. The players have to take a look at themselves and ask themselves about their hunger and desire.
When will we realise that we can’t simply change our manager every few months and then start playing with ten games to go.
If Advocaat does go I wonder if, for an Englsh club, Sunderland have achieved a record turnover of managers over a four year period. It must be a PL record and it shows that Short does not have a clue.
If Advocaat was promised more cash then I can understand why he will leave. Congerton? It would be more than a coincidence that he leaves at this moment, he persuaded Advocaat to come back and perhaps Short just wants rid of him? Perhaps, both. Keane was right about Short.
Short is absolutely clueless . I’m eternally greatfull to him for the fortune he’s put in and for ensuring our club continues to exist in a relatively healthy state ,but we have gone backwards from the minute he took over and we’ve now not nowhere to go but down .
Disagree. We’ve got nowhere to go but up. If events play out properly, we will.
Don’t agree about Short. He’s splashed the cash. How’s he supposed to know if Rodwell, Giaccherini, Johnson, Fletcher, etc would not perform to their expected level? He’s dished out big,big money for supposed PL-tried-and-trusted players.
I just think Short got some wrong advice.
We need to employ a psychologist to change the players mentality of “lets wait until 10 games to go, then start playing to avoid a wage cut, and hope there are three worse teams than us.”
The buck stops etc and everything Short has done has been short-term which must be completly at odds with his business instincts. There again, football and finances are a crazy combination and it is not for nothing that Private Eye has a finance column titled Planet Football.
I should have added that whilst I have grave doubts about Short, for many of the players utter contempt.
Always change your manager just before playing the Mags. It’s worked 3 times in a row, why stop now?
So Congerton has handed in his notice. This from the Mail Online.
“Sources say Congerton felt his hands were tied given financial restraints in the transfer market and the fact that managers such as Gus Poyet were allowed to bring in their own players, who he felt were not good enough.”
What does this tell us about the way the club is run?
Drummer is right in that Dick was talked into coming back but it was on the proviso that the squad was improved. If he goes he goes but I don’t think he lost the players like Di Canio did.
All of this negative talk will not help get us out of the situation. When we are in a tough spot we should all be pulling together – negativity will do nothing to help the situation. Dick might decide enough is enough and Bill will get his way but will that improve things? I doubt it.
Look at the Mags and what’s happened since Pardew went.
What does “pulling together” mean? The supporters couldn’t be more solidly behind the team. If Advocaat was able to pull the team together, we’d be behind him, too, all the way. There’s no negativity in realising that he’s less and less likely to achieve that and to replace him before the situation gets even worse and there’s less chance to recover. It’s not negative talk at all, it’s an appeal for the club to be pro-active and take a positive step.
Then we’ll have to agree that your idea of being behind the team and mine are not the same. There was no sign today that the team aren’t behind him. Everyone gave 100%.
Your dream will come true Bill as I fear Dick will not be at the West Brom game. A change of manager will not be the panacea you think.
Harry S Truman once said “the buck stops here.” Time Mr Short accepted that fact that his regime is proving disasterous despite the amount of cash he has poured our way.
Advoocat didnt really want to be here for the start of the season and he doesn’t want to be here now it seems . This has transferred itself to the players on the pitch in the same way that Poyets disengagement did in his last few months in the job. Time for him to go before more damage is done .
I agree. Bringing him back was misguided. We need a manager with a long term mind set. Someone with the energy, commitment and ability to organise what we have into a more effective unit, whilst gradually bringing in better quality [ and youth ] to build a team worthy of its magnificent support.
DA’s whole manner suggests defeatism. I think today may be his swansong.
O’Neil, Di Canio, Poyet, Advocaat. As I see it the problem isn’t who we have as manager – it’s the way SAFC is being run as part of a business portfolio and not as a competitive football club. Those who lay down the parameters of who we can and can’t sign are culpable. Those who negotiate the contracts of players who fail to make the grade and cost us dearly are culpable.
I said this elsewhere but it’s still lost in the ether somewhere, changing the manager is like sticking an elastoplast on a severed artery. It’ll stem the flow for a short time and make it look as if things are better, but it won’t take long for the wound to reopen.
Time for Dick and his team to show that they have some fight and fervour. If we are to go down then at least let’s go down battling.
It’s time for the team to show they have some fight and fervour, certainly, but it’s not – and I don’t think ever really has been – Advocaat’s team.
Let’s NOT go down, battling or otherwise. Let’s bring someone in with some fire in his belly, not a pile of rapidly cooling ashes. Let’s stay up.
It’s not Advocaat’s team and that’s been the problem for ages. The model that Ellis Short has put into place is not working. Constantly changing the manager is not the solution. Advocaat called for new players when he agreed to come back. Players were signed and at least three of them look decent but as has been said we sign those who are available not necessarily those with the required quality. That may be all that can be done but look how much money has been squandered over the past few seasons and look how hard it has been to get rid of the dead wood.
At risk of sounding like a broken record, I’ll say it one more time: Win, lose or draw (and the Mail Online seems to think that, either way, he’ll be out), let Advocaat go and let someone younger and with more energy and ideas take over. Someone better equipped to deal with the squad as it exists, to use constructively whatever strengths the players have instead of trying to impose preconceived tactical notions upon them. And to get some discipline into them. Yes, they are to blame for a part of the mess we’re in but any army is only as good as its generals.
Dyche, Nigel Pearson or even Patrick Viera… whoever it turns out to be, they need to take over sooner rather than later. Advocaat may have been the manager we needed towards the end of last season (though I don’t believe he was the only one who could have turned things around for us) but we should never have talked him – or, rather, bought him – into a longer-term contract. Even as he signed it, he must have been counting the days to the end of this season and a retirement made even more comfortable by the money we were shoveling into his lap. More money that we’ve wasted.
I just noticed that the Mirror, in predicting a 1-1 draw tomorrow, ends its match preview: “Despite Sunderland’s form, 42,000 tickets have been sold. Remarkable.”
No. Loyalty. Time it was rewarded.
And the Mirror will be the first to criticise the fans at the first sign of descent. Official mouth piece of the mags that’s published anti Sunderland snipes ever since that Faustian deal was done . It’s a triple whammy the way the mirror has gone for me personally as not only are they now a pro mag rag, they remain the only Labour supporting red top and they have a Sunderland fan in Kevin Maguire who is assistant editor .
Whilst Advocaat must shoulder his share of the blame for the results and performances so far I hope that the players are feeling suitably ashamed and embarassed tonight for their part in this mess.
For my part I still think he is the best man for the club but I certainly wouldn’t blame him for walking away, for his own sake, and I’m sure his wife will have had plenty to say on the matter too.