Statistically, Sunderland can stay up in the Premier League this year.
That’s why statisticians work in finance and insurance, anyone with a passing appreciation of the Premier League knows the Black Cats are yesterday’s newspaper. No statistician could convince me to put any hard earned on it being otherwise.
Last weekend, Manchester United hammered the latest nail into the coffin that will become Sunderland’s season. An emphatic, unequivocal 3-0 victory illustrating the hopelessness of the Sunderland cause now we are halfway into April.
Immediately thoughts will turn to blame laying. And, as always in sport, most of the attention will be focused on the coach, ‘manager’ as the English put it. As if the players would have found the results needed to stay up, if only David Moyes had given them the right direction.
And yet, if Sunderland are to do one thing over the off season to ensure that their banishment to the lower leagues is a one-year aberration, it must be to lock Moyes into a long term contract.
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Many articles will point to the United defeat being even harder for Moyes to stomach, given his ill-fated time at the helm of the Red Devils so recently. As if anyone was going to succeed following immediately on from Sir Alex Ferguson.
United misread Moyes’ skill set, believing he had much of what had made Sir Alex the legend he became. Chiefly, that they both reveled in a siege mentality, loved to be hated.
Ferguson certainly did, he measured his success by the level of hatred it evoked, especially when it was built on history, such as when United finally superseded Liverpool in terms of titles won.
Moyes had been very successful, relatively, in his time with Everton, which earned him the job at United.
But, that was a different siege mentality altogether: the battler overachieving. Succeeding despite all the things stacked against him, a small squad, injuries leaving him with no cover at the ‘pointy end’ of the season. The new talent he found and nurtured only to have it snatched away by the chequebook-waving bigger clubs.
Moyes wasn’t built to aspire to European finals against Madrid or Bayern. He loved the achievement of mid-table security and a cup run, while teams with more money and more history yo-yoed back into the Championship.
Sunderland are a big club, they have history, a huge support base, they are the only team in a big city. And next year they will be gutted, financial stricture will prune the squad built around Premier League wages, the vultures will swoop for any player worthy of the top tier.
And Moyes will love it, a small squad, the necessary introduction of unproven youngsters, the scouring of the secondary European leagues for forgotten, unseen talent.
The Brentfords and the Swindons will hate them, delighting in the thought of the storied old club getting drawn into the quicksand that is the Championship, the hardest league in the world to get out of.
Newcastle will be crowing, a home game against Chelsea will see St James full to overflowing, while Sunderland travel to Torquay.
The winter will be made up of frozen nights at similar backwaters, Barnsley and Burton Albion, and Moyes wil be in his element.
He’ll regenerate the players he managed to hang on to, find a great centre back and a playmaker in Slovenia. Nurse a threadbare squad through that huge fixture list.
And he will get Sunderland back into the top tier, one year on. I’d put money on that.
Liam Sheedy
Roar Guru
I do no quite share the same confidence in Moyes. Not only due to current performances with Sunderland and Man United but also the stint at Real Sociedad in between that saw him get sacked. You can certainly talk about lack of resources, players, owner investment and simple bad luck with injuries and poor referee decisions against them. But I think Moyes also has to take the fair share of the blame for the current Sunderland predicament.
marty beauchamp
Roar Pro
thanks Ray, i think you should have written the article's Sunderland content, I really just don't want to see clubs such as this dwindle away as you put it, we are already heading so quickly into the realm of super clubs and also rans, despite Leicester last year. I like David Moyes, I think he was out of his depth, lacked support and became a dead man walking at United. Unfortunately that took the focus away from what he is good at, managing mid sized clubs to over achievement. In the same way many players are not built to be at a United, but can be sensational at smaller clubs, Emile Heskey always springs to mind for me, tearing it up at Leicester. I hope that Sunderland come straight back up, in the same way I would love to see Wolves up there. Unfortunately 20 is a tiny number.
Ray P
Guest
Decent article Marty, even just for the fact that it highlights a team away from the top half... As a long suffering Sunderland fan, I think the bigger issue is that at the moment Sunderland are a very badly run club, and I think that goes a long way to explaining some of the other clubs with great histories who have slipped down and not come back too. There has a been a recent, but still too long, history of making poor managerial appointments and then sacking them just as quickly. We also had the shocking incompetence of the CEO in the handling of the Adam Johnson case which left a bad taste for all fans, numerous panic buys of average/uncommitted players who will be hard to shift for next season, and an owner who lost interest a long time ago. Add in the fact that he has been trying unsuccessfully for a few years to sell it off to anyone who is silly enough to pay his massively over inflated asking price, then the alarm bells are ringing.... Like many fans, I have wondered if relegation will allow them to clear out the squad and start from fresh to build the team and club up again to what they were under Reid, and it looks like were about to find out soon enough. However at this stage. unless the club is sold and gets a smart owner & senior management team in place, I think we'll dwindle away to a mediocre Championship team..... For the record, I think Moyes has been pretty poor this year in getting the most out of what he has at his disposal even with a very mixed bag of a squad, a lot of the games have been hard to watch... But I do think under the right circumstances, he could be just the man for the job and I hope he stays, but under a new owner.
marty beauchamp
Roar Pro
Exactly Buddy, when you look at that Championship table there are so many clubs with great histories, Forest, Ipswich, Huddersfield, Wolves... and so many who slipped out of the Premiership recently and really believed it would only be a season or two before they made their way back. I hope Sunderland doesn't become another perennial Championship battler. Moyes shouldn't be blamed for this year, and he is perfect, I think, to bring them back up quickly.
Buddy
Guest
I fully admire your optimism. I have a few friends who have supported the club since the days of Jim Montgomery and Bob Stokoe and remember the 5th May1973 with great affection but they do not share your optimism although it might just be based on more years of suffering. I fully agree they should hang on to Mr Moyes. Their current predicament is not really down to him and it is high time a club broke with the tradition of immediately sacking the manager after relegation. If he does stay we will really get to see whether he can manage under very challenging circumstances as that fight (as you said) to get out of the championshop is a real 15 round heavyweight contest.
Elliot Howey
Roar Guru