Di Canio, the Iron-yoked one-trick pony

Paolo Di Canio is no longer manager at Sunderland.  This must surely please most Mackem players and fans, as his thirteen-game shift produced more transfers than points won (nine from a possible 39).  His tenure ended with open popular revolt, with former captain Lee Cattermole allegedly speaking up for a free and united dressing room.

A victim of the second law of thermodynamics, Di Canio generated too much friction for his methods to be anything like sustainable.  His regular post-game player filleting was car-crash-interesting – and perhaps warranted – but ultimately meant his players sensed the division between manager and players; the blame was theirs, the credit his.  His refusal to temper his attitudes, perhaps the secret of his success as a player, was his undoing as a Premier League manager.

His story mimics that of Paul Ince, the former England captain out of his depth when he was signed from MK Dons to manage Blackburn Rovers.  Using genuine old-skool methods, Ince found himself bereft first of player confidence, and then of a job.  He only recently returned to as high as Championship standard.

The phrase “he doesn’t know when he’s beaten” is often used to compliment players.  It describes an individual of singular will who keeps throwing himself at challenges, hoping that brute force and redoubled effort will substitute for superior firepower.  In management, it’s a far less glittering reference.  The only tools a manager has are his tactical brain and communication skill; these must be refined and employed with tact in order to reach goals.  Much is made of Sir Alex Ferguson’s judicious use the hairdryer; however his best moments came not with bulging eyes and red cheeks but with backroom whispers, cod psychology and press-conference anecdotes.  The brightest days of Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Jupp Heynckes aren’t the product of shouts but of smiles.

It’s debatable whether Paolo Di Canio was ever able to relate to such a job-lot of Sunderland players, even if he had the inclination.  Had he sought to, the public dressing downs would have ceased – allowable in the lower profile Football League and taboo with myriad cameras focused on the Premiership.  Iron will became something of an iron yoke: he was a managerial one-trick pony; found out quickly and easily.

Short pitch: Sessegnon sale highlights new Sunderland

A fee has been agreed for the transfer of Sunderland forward Stephane Sessegnon to Qatari club Al Jaish.  The deal completes a hasty exit from the Stadium of Light for the Benin international, who has been probably the most influential Mackem of the past two seasons – the player was arrested for drink-driving only hours before the transaction was announced.

Questions must be raised about how and why the forward was sold, especially considering Paolo Di Canio’s strident desire to keep him; the fact that the deal was announced so quickly after the infraction only heightens suspicion that a deal was already in place.

After a second key forward swaps Northeast for Middle East in two years (and the third high-profile striker departs in three-plus years) the Black Cats now rely on new guy Jozy Altidore, the young Connor Wickham, a rehabilitating Steven Fletcher and the disappointing Ji Dong-Won.

With Sessegnon departs most of Martin O’Neill’s influence at Sunderland.  Though the move doesn’t seem to be of Di Canio’s design, his men are now obviously the centerpiece of the club’s new direction.  Owner Ellis Short seems to have bought in to Di Canio’s demanding and ultra-professional message and backed him by creating a lineup of hardened, regimented players – the only question now is about the talent level.  

2012-13 looms as something of a referendum comparing players of exuberant if sometimes wayward talent with those of unflinching professionalism.

Di Canio turns up the contrast at Sunderland

In appointing Paolo Di Canio as Sunderland manager, owner Ellis Short not only fell victim to the “Contrast Theory” but has actively embraced it. 

The theory is simple, and has its origins in time immemorial.  When replacing an underperforming manager, simply make your next selection his polar opposite: freewheelers replace tacticians.  Teachers replace “player’s coaches”; experience dismissed for youth that presages change e’er longed-for.

Completely and utterly uncontroversial is superseded by … Paolo Di Canio.

This contrast doesn’t get much more pronounced than this week’s changeover at the helm of the Black Cats.  Martin O’Neill – dear, staid, true, predictable and downtrodden Martin O’Neill – is gone, replaced by the fiery Di Canio.  For much of the season the Mackems have appeared short of ideas: O’Neill has been chief among the bewildered as his tried-and-tested methods shuffled his emotionless team towards relegation.

After an initial dead-cat bounce, the old coaching methods that O’Neill had employed with success over two decades with Wycombe, Leicester City, Celtic and Aston Villa proved ineffectual at Sunderland.  As his men became almost entirely inoffensive, O’Neill appeared a forlorn man adhering to tactics well past their sell-by date: defenders stop the ball, forwards shoot it and midfielders move the ball between the two as efficiently as possible. 

This theory still holds water – just, and if you squint – but, in practicality, is often exposed by the more fluid systems now en vogue throughout the EPL.

Di Canio is everything that Martin O’Neill was not.  He favours a remarkably fit team of young, hungry players.  Although he often played 4-4-2 at Swindon Town, he enjoyed the most success after shifting to an unorthodox formation.  He is flexible, young and hungry: three traits which hardly described O’Neill’s Wearside tenure.

He is also unflinchingly controversial, although references to his political beliefs may be somewhat overstated.

However, whether Di Canio’s furious affect will work in the Premiership is still up for debate - the spectacular fallout from another talent of the nineties, Paul Ince, after moving from League One to the top flight ended amidst a flurry of self-styled “Guv’nor” tactics which endeared him to neither his players, nor his employers.

Ellis Short has gambled that a controversial extrovert will be more effective in dodging relegation than persevering with a man who patently enjoyed only middling success.  O’Neill was an appointment tailored specifically to the situation in which Sunderland found themselves seventeen months past; Di Canio is a man chosen directly to address this predicament with this playing group.  How that dressing-shed cadre responds is now, quite literally, the £64 million question.

Sunderland AFC: The Blueprint for Europe?

Sunderland FC under Chairman Niall Quinn have no fear of change. Of this much we can be certain. Since Quinn led a cohort of investors in purchasing the Wearside club in 2006, the team has embarked on a remarkable remodeling of the then-recently relagated club, solidified this week as the club signed promising South Korea striker Ji Dong-won, highly-touted Ipswich forward Connor Wickham and finally - perhaps definitively - Birmingham midfielder Craig Gardner.

Deals for Manchester United trio John O'Shea, Wes Brown and Darron Gibson are still pending and the club reinforced its goalkeeper and right-side last week by signing established internationals Keiren Westwood and Sebastian Larsson on free transfer deals last week. Egyptian winger Ahmed Elmohamedy signed a permanent deal two weeks ago. Should the United deals go through - it appears the bids have been accepted by the Red Devils - the Mackems could field a side almost completely made up of new players next year. This is in keeping with manager Steve Bruce's modus operandi, as since Darren Bent's departure in January has announced the club in desperate need of remodeling.

The funds have come from player sales. Bent's January sale to Aston Villa brought in £24 million, while emergent midfielder Jordan Henderson cashed up to a reported £20 million. Sunderland - perhaps like even Arsenal now - have developed behind Shrek's pink cousin (Bruce) a reputation for developing players to on-sell. As a management philosophy, it's as practical and pragmatic as it gets - contending for the title is unrealistic, so building a solid contender for European football is a big win for a club only years removed from the embarrassment of footing the Championship.

In the five years since Quinn took control, he's brought in three managers after the demise of Mick McCarthy. Irishman McCarthy, who subsequently took Wolves to the Premiership and has kept them there for two years, was hamstrung in 2005-06 with a substandard squad which claimed a record-low Premier League points tally until Derby County's calamitous season two years later. Quinn invested unexpectedly in Roy Keane, who took Sunderland from the bottom of the Championship to the title. When Keane soured, the unlamented (and ill-suited) Ricky Sbragia was brought in, followed by Steve Bruce - another with a Man U connection.

The Wearsiders have re-tooled various times over the past five years; and though they flirted with the drop zone last season they are with Stoke city now considered the model that promoted teams should attempt to mimic should they want to retain their EPL status. It started with experience as players like Dwight Yorke, Andy Cole and Danny Higginbotham. There's a certain United theme to their squad as all the above, plus Kieren Richardson, Paul McShane, Fraizer Campbell, Phillip Bardsley plus loanees Jonny Evans and Danny Welbeck have apparated Wearside from the red half of Manchester, no doubt a direct consequence of the managers' places in United lore.

Season 2010-11 presented the Mackem support with their first top-10 finish since Peter Reid led them to seventh twice in Quinn's halcyon years partnering Kevin Phillips. The aim next season with such quality inclusions should be to replicate last season's success and perhaps sneak into Europe - Gardner and Larsson were Birmingham's shining midfielders last term, while releasing the versatile pair of Gibson and O'Shea could pay benefits. The "little and large" combination of Quinn and Phillips could have it's best long-term succession in two six-plus footers Gyan and Wickham.

Quinn, Keane and Bruce - uncompromising as during their playing days - along with majority owner Ellis Short, have assembled perhaps the most apposite mid- to long-term plan in the Premiership. However, the day by day management of Sunderland isn't above question - Bruce's skill as a tactician has been the subject of occasional scorn, while their squad still appears a striker short. It wouldn't be surprising at all to see Federico Macheda in the Northeast next season, perhaps accompanied by a tried-and-tested Assistant Manager (Ray Wilkins, anybody?). More importantly, they also need to get healthy after the end of last season was obliterated by injury.

Sunderland AFC - and subsequently Stoke City and even (perhaps) Wolves could solidify themselves as regular mid-table-or-better teams in the English Premiership. Swansea City, Norwich City and QPR would be wise to heed their example.

Image of Craig Gardner courtesy: www.goal.com. Image of Bruce/Quinn: sunderlandafc.info

Bent's goals will save (or cost) Aston Villa

Darren Bent looks likely to seal a £20+ million transfer from Sunderland to Aston Villa within the next forty-eight hours. From the outside, it’s when and not if the ex-Tottenham and Charlton forward departs the Northeast after he handed in his second written transfer request of the term - this request follows a rejected plea in August. Gaffer Steve Bruce sounds resigned to losing him and England’s The Guardian reports the Mackem manager stunned both by Bent’s desire to leave, and the amount at which Villa value the hitman.

It’s rumoured that an initial £18 million bid was rejected by the Mackems as they held out for a bid over milestone figure 20 millio. Add-ons have been suggested raising the deal to around £24M but the final shape of the transaction is still murky. Given Sunderland’s history in the transfer market – they rejected a £16 million bid for striker Kevin Phillips in the early years of this century only to sell him for £3 million two years later – it’s likely they can’t resist the lure of Gerard Houllier’s lucre and Bent’s future lies at the Birmingham club.

Usually unshy of expressing his admiration for the people and fans of the Northeast, Bent’s season so far has been a pale imitation of his outstanding first year on Wearside. His relationship with the region may have soured for good when his car was vandalised by Newcastle fans while shopping and whispers suggest the striker’s reputed fragile headspace has become an issue again after being overlooked for England’s World Cup campaign after his 2009-10 tour de force. He started brightly this season, scoring seven times by September’s end but since then has only tinkled the twine four times amidst a flurry of speculation regarding his happiness in the region. His starting position has been shared/usurped by offseason signing Asamoah Gyan and loanee Danny Welbeck, so it’s hardly a shock Bent’s head has been turned by a club closer to his Cambridgeshire roots.

In all probability Bent has played his last game in Sunderland’s red and white stripes and will leave the club he’s helped build from relegation fodder into challenging for European honours. He will re-inject himself into a situation with which he is very familiar - the relegation battle – having waged similar wars with Charlton, Tottenham and Sunderland. Aston Villa sit outside the drop zone only on goals scored, their goal difference mirroring that of 18^th-placed Wigan at -15. Under Martin O`Neill the Clarets challenged regularly for a top four berth but since the Northern Irishman`s departure, front men Gabby Agbonlahor and John Carew have been perpetually injured while reserve Emile Heskey scores goals with the same frequency as sightings of Halley’s Comet. Given the mixed returns of his youth policy, Houllier has identified a need for goals – quickly – and is gambling much of the dosh the club received from selling James Milner on a Bent revival and him leading the club to survival in an incredibly even Premiership season.

It’s an enormous gamble by the Frenchman – betting Bent’s recent goal drought comes from a lack of supply from midfield – and the manager is riding the hope that his wide men (Ashley Young, Stewart Downing and Marc Albrighton) can provide the ammunition the twenty-six year old needs to fire Villa to safety. With only sixteen EPL clashes remaining, DB “The Truth” will probably need to score somewhere around 7-10 goals or more to ensure safe haven for the Midlands club, at a composite cost of about £3 million per goal. When considering the money in top level football – and how much Villa would lose if relegated – that rate is unquestionably a bargain.

Should they survive.

If, however, the young Clarets can`t arrest their slide into the Championship, they will be forced to sell this new star at cut-price rates. The gamble is on display for all to see: how Bent settles into his new footballing home could cost Villa 18, 20, 24 or even 60 million pounds. Darren Bent will leave Sunderland to become Aston Villa`s talisman, for better or for worse.

It's all your fault, Ray Wilkins.

Last Thursday, it made headlines across the football media that Chelsea FC CEO Ron Gourlay had asked assistant manager Ray Wilkins to "step into my office". Wilkins did, and stepped out with a stamped pink slip relieving him of all duties at Stamford Bridge. Wilkins was fired by the administrators despite a harmonious relationship with manager Carlo Ancelotti and with the players.

Allegedly, it was for a lack of ideas and an insufficient understanding of the tactics required to be Ancelotti's right-hand man. The Italian was - at least in the press - as surprised as any and spent the evening at Wilkins' home comforting his former lieutenant, who it seemed had paid the price for last week's defeat to Liverpool. It wasn't so much his dismissal that surprised but the guillotine-style in which it was executed that had the scribes typing so frantically.

You don't get to the top of the business world without having a heart of Siberian granite. It may be this trait which undoes so many successful businessmen who become involved in sports ownership: why is such a successful businessman able to screw things up so royally in another field? Well, sport is an emotional business: the most talent doesn't necessarily win the most matches, each player's headspace has to be considered. The team best able to combine the ability on hand with the correct mental attitude is best positioned to perform well. The dispassionate nature of the businessman doesn't always sit well with the emotional, artistic characteristics of the sportsman.

Is it so shocking then that after a popular club man's harsh dismissal - he was escorted by security immediately from club property - that the Blues turned out a dismal performance against Sunderland yesterday? This in no way should take away from the Mackems brilliance as they danced around a Chelsea lineup to smash home three goals against the reigning champs, but surely such a brutal termination must leave the players in a state of confusion and thinking "Who's next"?

This was swift, it was unexpected and it was perhaps aimed at the playing staff suggesting "No-one is safe: perform, or leave". How would any sane person react to such a stark message? By focusing more on getting the job done. Apparently, this reaction wasn't to their benefit. It is eminently possible to approach a match with too much, or the wrong kind, of intensity; often the intensity brought about by fear rather than by security results in a player who plays robotically and fearing failure rather than going about their business with the freedom that job security brings.

Perhaps there's something to this: Chelsea's weakest positions on the weekend were in the centre of the park in the form of Jon Obi Mikel and Yuri Zhirkov. These two are probably the most vulnerable players in the squad, the two most likely to be sold and replaced due to their relative lacking performances. They were given a torrid time by the Black Cats and if their form didn't put them under scrutiny before, surely it now will.

The de rigeur of the past may have previously comforted the players, where the final decision of "Will he stay or Will he go" was made by the manager. Not today, not any more. Because what this firing said about the Blues' hierarchy is that although Carlo Ancelotti may be the head coach, calling him the Manager now rings hollow. He was obviously uninvolved in the sacking: he said in his autobiography that Chelsea wouldn't have won the title without Wilkins last term. Further evidence can be found in the fact that had he had a say in the sacking, surely he wouldn't have been either welcome or inclined to visit Wilkins at his home.

All these facts cannot be lost on the players. Roman Abramovich has a habit of ensuring that he is the top dog at his football club and this habit is not always to the Blues' benefit. He was similarly brutal when he felt Jose Mourinho had outstayed his welcome - Jose was only able to contact his players by text message after he left. As with Mourinho, Wilkins will undoubtedly be replaced quite soon by the Chelsea cognoscenti, but this entire process has served as another wake-up call for Ancelotti and his men: Roman rules by fear.

Surely now?

A match against arch-rivals proving the ultimate testing ground for an under-pressure manager. Theatre has been scripted along these torrid yet predictable lines since the days of the Greek tragedy. A drama written in the stars with the same inevitability as another Rocky sequel or JK Rowling penning another Harry Potter novel.

Yet it was this familiar situation in which Newcastle United found itself before their weekend North-East derby with Sunderland following lengthy speculation over Chris Hughton's job-security. Rumour-mongers presented the same hackneyed storyline: a poor showing or even a spirited defeat at home could perhaps cost The Understated One his job.

The match belonged to Newcastle's front line. Hughton opted to start Andy Carroll and Shola Ameobi alongside one another for he first time this term; captain and part-time live-in-babysitter Kevin Nolan moved from his typical second striker role to a place in midfield. It was to be him that benefited from the Carroll/Ameobi pairing as time and again he found himself unmarked in the right place at the right time. In fact, the entire game could well be described as coming at the right place at the right time - a home ground at which the Toon Army have so far struggled at a time where their manager is under "friendly" fire for the first time in 2010.

Sunderland were simply unable to cope with the athleticism (!) that Newcastle displayed in front of their home fans. The superb Joey Barton and the irrepressible Jonas Gutierrez were magnificent in creating aerial opportunities in the Wearside box, chances that the Black Cat defence was thoroughly unable to repel as the muscle and pace of Carroll and Ameobi perpetually drew their opponents into horrible positions. It wasn't just the pace of the Broadsword Brigade up front - though it was directly responsible for both the penalty and Titus Bramble's red card - but Carroll/Ameobi's ability to get themselves up for second and third probing runs that created the malarkey in the Sunderland half.

The man to benefit was Nolan. The captain - who's nose for goal has never been questioned - was unmarked in the penalty area so often that if he hadn't been everywhere all day, his hattrick could be thought of as effortless. The Sunderland forwards were unsighted thanks to a midfield performance so ineffectual that it beggared belief: unable to control the ball and unwilling to match the gut-running that marked the Magpies' game. Jordan Henderson must be cursing that it was in this match that England Assistant manager Franco Baldini came to scout him. The confusion that the twin strikers were able to spread within a bemused Sunderland defence was equalled only by the utter ineptness of the Wearsiders' physicality and concentration. Apparently they didn't want to mark Carroll's babysitter.

Surely now Chris Hughton has earned a new contract. Surely now, Mike Ashley? His side has come out in support, most notably Barton this week and Nolan after Sunday's match. Other league managers have done so as well. It's rare that you see a Manager under such boardroom scrutiny yet not from either the terraces or the newspapers. It's certain that a few of the more low-brow English tabloids would love a change of management at Newcastle if only for increased newspaper sales - but only a crazy person would excise the normalcy brought by The Understated One for the bombastic actions of a Joe Kinnear.

The ball, Mike Ashley, is firmly in your court.