by Amidst the kind words and usual yardsticks that are the core of an official club statement to announce the sacking of a manager, Sunderland made one thing abundantly clear – sporting director Kristjaan Speakman’s way or not.
With the much-loved veteran manager, Tony Mowbray, Speakman and the mostly quiet club owner, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, Sunderland’s two most powerful men, reminding everyone who is in charge and in what direction they are sure the club should be traveling.
Problems began to play out with shock
When Mowbray began to question the logic of the recruitment strategy and the obsession with signing young players from all over the world, nurturing them, developing them and finally selling them for a profit to reinvest in more of the same, it was set aside it. He warned, privately, that promotion was unlikely.
The tension first surfaced in the dying stages of last season’s unexpected top six and the narrow play-off semi-final defeat at Luton Town – when injuries stripped Sunderland of its most reliable defenders and they had experience – had fallen below the surface for months.
Sources have described an “uneasy break” in the summer. Mowbray backed Speakman into a corner, provocatively claiming he did not know whether he would return as manager this season immediately after that defeat at Kenilworth Road.
It was his popularity with the supporters, fully appreciated for the job he did in bringing the new Championship team ahead of promotion that protected him. He could afford to wake up his bosses and quit.
They wouldn’t dare sack someone their fans respect. They were not brave enough to do so, but inevitably there was doubt that they were biding their time.
The sack came with Sunderland ninth in the Championship, just three points clear of the play-offs, but with six wins in their last 12 games. Few supporters called for it to happen.
Mowbray was well aware of media reports earlier in the year which suggested Sunderland had already begun looking for a replacement. Succession planning seemed to have begun.
Perhaps Speakman and Dreyfus were just “window shopping” and they could argue that it was best practice to plan ahead, but it was a source of suspicion and mistrust.
Hands were shaken and everyone got their jobs, said the right things in public and tried to move on, but Mowbray knew things were going to be more difficult. Especially when the team’s best striker Ross Stewart, who was prone to injury, was sold to Southampton and when Amad Diallo was signing the star back to Manchester United during the summer.
Suddenly, the 60-year-old looked like an unstoppable manager, who achieved far more than anyone expected to take Sunderland into the play-offs. He was brought in as a safe pair of hands after Alex Neil’s shock defection to Stoke City in August last year, but is not seen as a long-term answer.
‘Modern football theatre’
Mowbray had developed young players throughout his life, he had a lot of experience in the Championship and he would keep them in the second tier at least. After promotion, that was all that mattered and would give Speakman and his recruitment team time to identify the next generation, within the talents of the budget, to add to the squad.
Speakman thinks of himself as a visionary, a modern football man who worked out the Matrix. He is obsessed with youth development.
Dreyfus may be a very rich young man from a very rich family, but those with knowledge of the way the club is run have emphasized to Telegraph Sport that it is very much a business project for the Frenchman. He will not be pumping large sums of money to pursue a dream. There is nothing wrong with that.
The recruitment department, led by Speakman, who at the age of 44 worked his way up the football ladder after starting his career as an academy coach at Derby County and Birmingham City, could provide the manager with the players to work with .
The manager or head coach will continue to mold them into a successful Championship team while also improving as individuals.
The more experience they get, the better they and the team will be. That, at least, is how the board believed it should work. That’s the model they married themselves too. This is the blueprint and it will not be changed.
At this point, however, it’s worth remembering that Mowbray was only appointed because Neil, the manager who finally got Sunderland out of League One after four years in the third tier, left for Stoke because he questioned the recruitment strategy. and business too. Miniature.
He didn’t want to work with kids, he wanted experience and proven Championship players alongside them. They are not cheap and do not have as much potential for resale profit.
Like Mowbray, he began to believe that promotion, which the Sunderland board say they want, will not be possible unless there is a compromise on recruitment. He left because he never felt like they would.
21st manager in 21 years
The end result is that another club is looking for Sunderland, a club with a reputation for chewing up and plucking out managers. This will be their 20th dugout change since 2002.
What comes next, everything will be defined. Two managers eventually disagreed with the model and questioned the vision. If two becomes three, things will start to unravel and Speakman will be in the firing line.
“This was a difficult decision, but we remain true to our ambition and our strategy,” said Speakman, in a statement that many fans suspect has been sitting in a draft file for some time. “And now feels like the right time to take this step.”
The tone of Dreyfus’ comments was equally clear: “As custodians of our great club, we believe in our long-term strategy that we hope will ensure sustainability and success for SAFC.
“Central to that approach is a relentless drive to implement a high performance culture across the club and the development of a strong playing identity that you, our loyal supporters, can be proud of.”
If promotion to the Premier League, a division the Wearsiders last made six years ago, is the ultimate aim, Speakman and Dreyfus, the youngest owner in the English football at the age of 26, which will determine how they will succeed. there. It is their project and vision and the Speakman model that will bring the club back to the top flight.
Supporters are still willing to trust the people in charge. There is goodwill after promotion from League One and last season’s lackluster play-offs. The players that have come under Speakman have clear talent and ability. Some of the football is great to watch.
But that is ultimately meaningless if they don’t have the right manager to lead them. Mowbray’s view was that too many of them were “not ready enough” to give Sunderland the results they need in the promotion race.
Young managers making their mark
There is an opinion that Speakman already knows who he wants to replace Mowbray. Sources have said he wants a younger, more dynamic manager with modern methods, language and style.
He will have looked at the job someone like Kieran McKenna has done with Ipswich Town and will be convinced that there is someone like him out there who can do a better job than Mowbray. He may be right. It could also be wrong.
Southampton got rid of a popular manager in Nigel Adkins many years ago and was replaced by a young Argentinian called Maurico Pochettino and things turned out well.
Hull City signed Marco Silva and almost pulled off a stunning escape from relegation when they looked dead and buried until he arrived. Both were mostly unknown managers from abroad who had success in English football.
But, would they have done that with a team as young as Sunderland’s? Could they mold young men from France, Ukraine, Portugal, Holland, Costa Rica and, of course, Wales into promotion contenders knowing that those players will be sold when the right time to throw money in?
Could they compete consistently with teams operating with much bigger wage budgets and bigger transfer funds, those who drop out of the Premier League with all the extra quality and squad depth they bring?
Could they be successful without a proven striker in their side – Sunderland’s specially conceived promotion haven’t scored a league goal between them this season?
Because this is what the new Sunderland manager will have to do if they are to make Speakman and Dreyfus’ vision a reality.
Everyone in charge of football clubs has a plan, the right one depends entirely on results.
From the outside looking in, Mowbray was doing a good job within testing parameters. The people running Sunderland disagreed. But if they get the next appointment wrong, supporters may start to disagree with the way they are doing things too.
