Amid all the kind words and usual platitudes that form the core of an official club statement announcing a manager’s sacking, Sunderland made one thing abundantly clear: it’s sporting director Kristjaan Speakman’s way or not at all.
In removing much-loved veteran manager, Tony Mowbray, Speakman and the largely silent club owner, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, Sunderland’s two most powerful people, reminded everyone who is in charge and what direction they think the club should take .
The trouble started with a shock playoff
When Mowbray began to question the logic in the recruitment strategy and the obsession with attracting young players from around the world, nurturing them, developing them and ultimately selling them on at a profit to reinvest in more of the same, he put aside. He warned privately that promotion was highly unlikely.
The tension that first manifested itself in the dying embers of last season’s unexpected top six finish and the narrow play-off semi-final defeat to Luton Town – when injuries deprived Sunderland of their most reliable and experienced defenders robbed – had bubbled beneath the surface for months.
Sources have described an “uneasy truce” over the summer. Mowbray had Speakman cornered, provocatively claiming he did not know whether he would return as manager this season immediately after that defeat at Kenilworth Road.
His popularity with the supporters, who fully appreciated the work he had done in bringing a newly promoted Championship team to the brink of promotion, protected him. He could afford to poke his bosses and get away with it.
They wouldn’t dare fire someone who is adored by fans. They weren’t brave enough to do that, but there was inevitably a suspicion that they were biding their time.
The dismissal came when Sunderland were ninth in the Championship, just three points off the play-offs, but with six defeats in their last twelve games. Few supporters had called for this.
Mowbray was well aware of media reports earlier this year that suggested Sunderland were already looking for his replacement. It seemed that succession planning had begun.
Speakman and Dreyfus may have just been window shopping and could argue that it was best practice to plan ahead, but it created suspicion and mistrust.
Hands were shaken and everyone went about their business, saying the right things in public and trying to move on, but Mowbray knew it was going to be harder. Especially when the team’s best striker, the injury-prone Ross Stewart, was sold to Southampton and Amad Diallo returned to Manchester United in the summer.
Suddenly the 60-year-old, who had achieved far more than anyone expected in getting Sunderland to the play-offs, looked like an emergency manager. Brought in as a safe pair of hands after the shock of Alex Neil’s desertion to Stoke City last August, but not seen as the long-term answer.
‘A modern football visionary’
Mowbray had developed young players throughout his career, had extensive experience in the Championship and would keep them at least in the second tier. After the promotion, that was all that really mattered and it would give Speakman and his recruitment team time to identify, within budget, the next generation to add to the squad.
Speakman considers himself a visionary, a modern football man who has worked out the Matrix. He is obsessed with youth development.
Dreyfus may be a very wealthy young man from a very wealthy family, but those with inside knowledge of how the club is run have insisted to Telegraph Sport that it is primarily a business venture for the Frenchman. He will not pump large sums of money into chasing a dream. There is nothing wrong with that.
The recruitment department, led by Speakman, who had worked his way up the football ladder at the age of 44 after starting his career as an academy coach at Derby County and Birmingham City, was able to provide the players for the manager to work with.
The manager or head coach will continue to shape them into a successful championship team and also improve them as individuals.
The more experience they got, the better they and the team would become. At least that’s how the board thought it should work. That is the model they are married to. This is the blueprint and it will not be changed.
At this point, however, it is worth remembering that Mowbray was only appointed because Neil, the manager who had finally taken Sunderland out of League One after four years in the third tier, left for Stoke because he also had doubts about the recruitment strategy and the business operations. fashion model.
He didn’t want to work with children, he wanted experience and proven champion players next to them. They aren’t cheap and don’t have much potential for resale profit.
He, like Mowbray, came to believe that promotion, which the Sunderland board say they want, will not be possible unless compromises are made in recruitment. He left because he didn’t feel like that would ever happen.
A 21st manager in 21 years
The end result is that Sunderland, a club known for eating and spitting out managers, are looking for another. It will be the twentieth change in the dugout since 2002.
What comes next will determine everything. Two managers ultimately disagreed with the model and questioned the vision. When two becomes three, things will fall apart and Speakman will be in the line of fire.
“This was a difficult decision to make, but we remain true to our ambition and our strategy,” Speakman said in a statement that many fans suspect has been in a draft file for some time. “And felt that this was the right time to take this step.”
The tone of Dreyfus’s comments was equally candid: “As trustees of our great club, we believe in our long-term strategy, which we hope will ensure sustainability and success for SAFC.
“Central to that approach is a relentless demand for a culture of high performance implemented throughout the club and the development of a strong playing identity that you, our loyal supporters, can all be proud of.”
If promotion to the Premier League, a division the Wearsiders last graced six years ago, is the ultimate goal, it will be Speakman and Dreyfus, the youngest owner in English football at 26, who decide how to manage their gain status. over there. It is their project and Speakman’s vision and model that will hopefully take the club back to the top.
Supporters are still willing to trust the people in charge. There is good will after promotion from League One and last season’s near miss in the play-offs. The players who have arrived under Speakman have talent and clear potential. Some of the football was great to watch.
But that’s ultimately pointless if they don’t have the right manager to lead them. Mowbray’s view was that too many people were ‘not quite ready’ to give Sunderland the results they needed to gain promotion.
Young managers making their mark
There is an opinion that Speakman already knows who he wants to replace Mowbray. Sources say he wants a younger, more dynamic manager, with modern methods, language and style.
He will have looked at the work that someone like Kieran McKenna has done at Ipswich Town and will convince himself that there is someone like him who can do a better job than Mowbray. He might be right. He could also be wrong.
Southampton sacked a popular manager in Nigel Adkins many years ago and replaced him with a young Argentinian named Maurico Pochettino, and things turned out quite well.
Hull City appointed Marco Silva and almost achieved a remarkable escape from relegation as they looked dead and buried until he arrived. Both were largely unknown managers from abroad who flourished in English football.
But would they have done that with a team as young as Sunderland’s? Could they have turned young men from France, Ukraine, Portugal, the Netherlands, Costa Rica and of course the British Isles into promotion candidates, knowing those players will be sold when the time comes to make money?
Can they compete consistently with teams operating with much larger wage budgets and larger transfer funds, teams leaving the Premier League with all the extra quality and squad depth that brings?
Could they thrive without a proven striker in their side – Sunderland’s supposedly specialist centre-forwards have yet to score a league goal this season?
Because this is what Sunderland’s new manager will have to do if they want to make Speakman and Dreyfus’ vision a reality.
Everyone in charge of football clubs has a plan, and whether it is the right one depends entirely on the results.
From the outside, Mowbray performed well within the test parameters. The people who govern Sunderland disagreed. But if they get the next deal wrong, the supporters may also start to disagree with the way they are doing things.