John McCormick writes: Neil Carter’s The football manager, A history was published in 2006. Carter makes it clear that short managerial stays have been part and parcel of the professional game for longer than we’ve been watching it: even before the war “the intensification of competition brought with it managerial insecurity” (it’s an academic book, you have to expect this language); between 1945 and 1960 over 600 managers left their clubs; between 1973 and 1993 an average of 17 new managers arrived every season; by the start of the Premiership the average tenure had dropped to 1.5 years. We’re par for the course, with fifteen managers, including caretakers, between 1973 and 1993. The last six years are not unusual and, from this perspective, Di Canio only had about a year left unless he achieved something.
John McCormick
Who took our 39 steps to safety? A man some Arsenal fans want
At ESPNFC.com, a couple of Arsenal supporters responding to end-of-season roundups, including Monsieur Salut’s, urged Monsieur Wenger to go for Simon Mignolet as his saves had kept Sunderland up. We’d all like to tell them, and Arsène if he comes, where to go. Do it politely – M Salut’s admiration for the Alsacien is well known – but make it forceful. But John McCormick has been doing his sums again to see exactly who did what to take us to our mighty haul of 39 points … and Mignolet is not the only name under the McCormick microscope …
Head says Citeh, heart says Wigan
It’s a Friday evening during the football season , but here in the Northwest, from where two teams will shortly compete for the most famous knockout trophy in the world, things now seem very muted. What’s it like in the Northeast, where two teams have a really serious weekend coming up?
It’s an FA cup final weekend but not a proper one. How can it be? The league hasn’t finished. There will be Premiership games on the Sunday. The final itself kicks off at 5.15 on Saturday, to suit God knows who, presumably not the thousands of fans who will struggle to get back to Greater Manchester. Money, money, money, it’s a rich man’s world and bugger the poor supporters, as ABBA could have written.
Of course, it’s not just the timing of the final and the continuance of the Premier league. The Press and TV in the Northwest this week has been full of one manager’s resignation and another’s appointment, not long after covering a Merseyside derby which included a legendary player’s almost last appearance. It’s only now that the TV down here has turned to Wigan and Man City, and it feels quite exhausted in doing so, as if football has been done to death, which maybe it has.
Sunderland, Leeds and Wembley 1973. Part 6: May 5, our Agincourt
You may have thought John McCormick stretched things somewhat when he wrote about his trip to the 1973 semi-final. He disagrees, having retained a fairly clear memory of that remarkable day 40 years on. When it comes to the final itself, John says, things are much more cloudy leaving his recall of that particular weekend full of holes …
Will it be Wigan or Villa (or Stoke or Newcastle) to go down with Reading and QPR?
The headline, untouched by M Salut’s hand, is noteworthy for the absence of Sunderland from the list of contenders for the last of the bottom three slots. We must all (save for visiting supporters of the other affected clubs) take comfort from John McCormick‘s scholarly ways, sincerely hope he knows what he’s doing and be assured he is not tempting fate … it is the latest of his studies of how fluctuating goal differences may affect the outcome of the pressing Premier issue that remains to be resolved following Man Utd’s confirmation of the title
McCormick’s Craic: Paolo Di Canio and another view
M Salut writes: Anyone who reads Salut! Sunderland regularly should know that nothing here is cut and dried. There is little by way of cast-in-strong editorial policy beyond passionate support for Sunderland AFC. Often enough, contributors quarrel with one another’s views. That’s as it should be. In the torrent of mainly non-SAFC abuse and bile I received at ESPN for offering my (fairly even-handed) response to the Paolo Di Canio appointment, there was little hint of a coherent counter-argument (honourable exceptions include the reply by Phil Johnson, disagree as we do). Here, John McCormick explores some of the nuances I referred to while admitting that his own head is spinning …
McCormick’s Craic: putting a value on Steven Fletcher
John McCormick loves his stats. After his theorising on the importance of goal difference in ensuring Premiership survival, he now …
Transfer window or academy graduates? Making the grade and falling by the wayside
John McCormick takes a long, cool look at the way young would-be footballers’ dreams of top-flight careers are nurtured and, all too often, dashed …
There have recently been comments that Martin O’Neill needed not only to get busy in the transfer window but also to start bringing in some of our academy players.
The latter may be wishful thinking. You may remember Goldy, on these pages, voicing early-season criticism of our academy’s attitude to young players. My own experience, gained when I talked to teachers and conducted pupil interviews in the North West, suggests that there is a problem but it’s not confined to Sunderland.
Tottenham ‘Who are You?’: rare charmless morons – or have we hadron too many?
A Christmas present for Sunderland and Arsenal fans, and maybe rugby-playing schoolboys
John McCormick once again delves into Sunderland’s past to take a look at one of the greats who wore the …