Choose Sunderland’s next manager: at least one O’Neill in the frame

Jake: ‘you don’t talk to the likes of us, Ellis, so how can we be blamed if we get something wrong?’

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

[polldaddy poll=9875265]

No one is quite suggesting that Macbeth’s Soliloquy is mysteriouly guiding Martin Bain and Ellis “yes I’m watching” Short in their ponderous search for a new Sunderlnd manager.

But some of the lines ring true. Shakespeare might even have added:

And wilt thou grant a home win
Afore ye hath another gaffer?

Two things stick out like a sore thumb.

* There may be urgency in the processs but it is not readily visible. Bottom of the league, demoralised, leaderless, winless, useless … but hey, who said you have to take advantage of an international break to get things done?

** The supporters care a lot less just now than they did about each of the plentiful managerial changes that have gone before (with the possible exception of Grayson for Moyes, since the rot had well and truly set in). Whose fault is that?

The Bard of Avon’s imagined question won’t go away. Will we actually win at home before we have a new man in charge?

If it is to be an O’Neill, would any of us want MON back (not that I am suggesting he’d come)?

HAVE YOUR SAY IN THE POLL ….

I may award a mug to the reader who posts the most incisive – of maybe just funny  – Comment below. But knowing Sunderland, we’ll have our manager before the ink has a chance to dry.

M Salut, drawn by Matt, colouring by Jake

16 thoughts on “Choose Sunderland’s next manager: at least one O’Neill in the frame”

  1. Bain should be sent permanently to the But n Ben and if Martin O’Neill turns up he should be given the same directions

  2. Ok, we can, well most of us can, split a bit of Shakespeare, Dickens maybe, possibly Twain when in a lighter mood, in contrast, Steinbeck or Tolstoy….but

    Oor Wullie beats the lot of them.

    The cry from the soul is “Crivvens!!!”

  3. Our beloved club needs clearout from hecking top to Heckingbottom. Paul promotes youngsters and knows “Youth is full of sport, age’s breath is Short”(!)
    Let’s hope Lord MacBain acts soon rather than wandering Lear-like in the storm pondering “As Flies to Wanton Boys Are We to the (footballing) Gods – They Kill Us for their Sport!”
    But then again, “The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth”…

  4. Now is the winter of our discontent, the evil that men like Moyes do lives after them.
    We have seen better days…
    Our new manager? I can not tell what the dickens his name is, but uneasy lies the head that wears the crown….
    As for me, I have loved not wisely but too well. But the course of true love never did run smooth, and mine is sorely tested at the moment by the Bain of my existence.

  5. A distressed Bain ‘informe informe they’ve all got it in for me!’ not really Shakespeare but Bains not really a Sunderland fan either.

    • Pity I have only one mug to award as all entries merited a prize. Pete H gets it by a whisker from all other comments

  6. We could ask Martin Bain to “screw your courage to the sticking plate” and appoint someone who might sort the players out and get them playing with their heads up e.g. Michael O’Neill or Paul Heckingbottom
    But remember “opinions but a fool” so what do we, the people who stick with the club through thin and thinner know?
    I urge Mr Bain to “change thy thought that I may change my mind” with regard to Ally McCoist.
    Failing that, we can only echo Lady Macbeth’s instruction to the family dog “out damned spot(Short).”

  7. Next Sunderland manager? Who knows? All I ask is that the man (or woman) eventually appointed comes in and gets rid of players like Kone, Gibson, Rodwell, Jones. Send the loan players back asap and promote from the U23 and U21s. Sort the club out from top to bottom. Make us proud to be SAFC fans again or risk losing us for ever. It’s that bad.

  8. Nothing scientific about this but early voting put Michael O’Neill well in the lead, initially with Paul Heckinbottom second but later (and closing) Aitor Karanka, as the fans’ choice. The poll allows you to name someone not mentioned: suggestions so far are Roy Keane, Big Sam, Gus Poyet, Paul Hirst, Kevin Phillips and Stefan Schwarz

  9. Lead on McBain with yer Much Ado About Nothing (much). At least we’re not scraping the (Hecking)botham of the barrel with the Scottish mafia!!

  10. My favourite lines from Shakespeare.

    Sunderland fans, at the games, are not particularly full of sound and fury at present.

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