As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
Still don't like the players though. If, as is suggested in the article, they'd have "ran through brick walls" for Martin O'Neill there was very little evidence of it when he was there. They've got their cushy lives back because they ran to Margaret Byrne who is hideously out of her depth at the cutting edge of running a football club.
These stories have got a habit of coming out after a manager has gone true or not.
If the players liked O'Neill so much they would have shown it on the pitch they didn't.Huge turnover in players has gone against you IMO when you turned over the geordies away tail end of last year the players must have bought in to Di Canio's ideas was the best I had seen you play in along time.
Whoever you get in just shows you the strength of player power if they talked on the pitch effort wise as they seem to moan off it football would be a better place.
My favourite manager off all time Brian Clough but even going back in time went to Leeds & the players were against him from day one because he was too honest with what he thought of them.Even more so today the modern footballer instead of rolling their sleeves up & getting on with what they are paid well to do so happy to make every excuse under the sun for not performing .Chin up mate.
Although he's obviously got some questionable methods the fact that the players wanted him out clearly stemmed from him not having time for any time-wasters and coasters - which the squad seems to be absolutely packed with.
Again whatever people think of him you cannot deny he is passionate for the game was as a player & as a manager.
Rather than toe the line of 'the boys really care,we are working hard on the training pitch etc.etc' he at least told the fans of Sunderland what he honestly thought being too honest has cost him like I say many were singing a different tune when he kept them up & smashed Newcastle.
That has to be the most predictable sacking I've ever known - seriously, the vast majority of people knew it would end in tears before the ink on his contract was even dry!
But, having gone against the grain and backed a madman, why on earth would you sack the fella 5 games into a new season after backing him all summer in orchestrating a mass personnel overhaul?!
Ridiculous. The owner comes out of this with no credit whatsoever.
Although I did find di Canio's honesty and his public criticism of non-performs refreshing, it's clear that he doesn't understand the modern entitled footballer and how to manage them correctly. Another example to support the old adage that great players don't necessarily make great managers.
1989 wrote:Although I did find di Canio's honesty and his public criticism of non-performs refreshing, it's clear that he doesn't understand the modern entitled footballer and how to manage them correctly. Another example to support the old adage that great players don't necessarily make great managers.
Fair comment. On one hand fair play to him for trying to shake things up and it's disgraceful that underperforming, pampered failures who view the club as a cash cow and/or retirement home get to decide how the club is run. But on the other his apparent methods and certainly his constant criticism of his players isn't exactly a recipe for success and certainly isn't a recipe for longevity in the managerial job.
brucegrove wrote:Great comment on Guardian website:
'on the plus side, di Canio did apparently get the training sessions to run on time'
(For those that don't get the reference, people used to say about Mussolini that although he was considered a cruel dictator, at least he got the trains in Italy running on schedule!! )
Some of the stories about his methods I was reading in today's paper didn't exactly paint him in a good light. I'm sure that leaked accounts from "sources" (i.e. O'Shea or Wes Brown) about how random and vitriolic he was in his criticism are greatly overplayed, but apparently he brought in policies like refusing to allow any Academy or Reserve players to use the gym if there was even a single first-teamer in there. Very 1980s.
Panic button pressed far too soon for my money. I still can't believe why a club would give a manager so much free licence to bring in the number of players they did with him and punt him after 5 games
Tonight on Talkshite they were blathering on about how the doubts about him had already set in over the Summer.....so why would the club back him so heavily ?
The bloke was known to be off the wall as a player but also as a manager. He publically slated his players at Swindon, subbed his keeper after 10 minutes, had to be held back from fighting one of the others etc, so why all this seemingly came as a shock to the Sunderland hierarchy is beyond me. Do owners know anything about football? It'll be like them appointing Tony Pulis and then wondering why in a few months time the fans are bored by the style of football
The Mackem's squad need to look at themselves yet again. Another (albeit poor) manager removed because of 'player power'.
Something is seriously wrong when a perennially injured, constantly suspended erstwhile captain is calling the fucking shots.
Players like Bardsley and Cattermole are a cancer on the game, sitting on their limited talent arses earning money that most people from the Sunderland area could only dream of.
safcftm wrote:Well, safe to say I’m gutted. Just sick of football nowadays to be honest. Short appointed Di Canio, he knew what he was like and apparently seemed happy to have someone who wouldn’t take any shit off a bunch of underperforming players. Short changed the whole set-up, moving to a Director of Football model where Di Canio identifies the kind of player he wants and the Director of Football goes and finds one. And now after 12 league games, 5 games into this season, the bloke’s been sacked because the players have “stood up” to him. What a fucking joke. Not one of those players have earned the right to have any say in who manages us, hell a lot of them are that shit they’ve now seen off their 3rd manager. When will the owner realise the problem might not be the manager? Apparently pisshead, constantly injured Cattermole was one of two who initially stood up to him, mint, the fucker was wanted by Nottingham Forest last week, he’s fucking shite. The other was John O’Shea, obviously annoyed that his easy money retirement home wasn’t as cushy as he’d wanted, he’s fucking shit anarl.
The players don’t like someone, out he goes. Let’s just ask the players who they want in charge then. No doubt they’ll want some wanker like Di Matteo who can be their mate and let them do as they please. Di Canio wasn’t without fault, he was making mistakes, but 5 fucking league games? I’ve had enough with modern football, prima donna players even at a club like ours where, to a man, they’re shit. An owner who has overseen the systematic selling of any good players (without any sort of a fight). A “CEO” who is so out of her depth it’s frightening. And a manager who has been made the fall guy. We were shit last season – our best player (Mignolet) is sold and not replaced, our next best player (Rose) goes back to Spurs and isn’t replaced, Sessegnon is sold and we get Ki and Borini. Di Canio asks for an English central midfielder that can pick a pass, Huddleston is deemed too expensive and gets away, he ends up being given Cabral who is shit and has already been stuck in the reserves. Guardiola would struggle to do anything with our fucking mob, a bunch of wankers, wasters and a squad full of freebies, fillers and general shite.
Well, the players have got what they want, now we can choose from one of several shite, boring managers. We’ll go down anyway, because we’re shite, and to be absolutely honest I’m very much struggling to give a fuck anymore, football is fucked. Finally we had someone who worked hard, who appreciated how lucky he was to be in his position and who wanted to give us a team to be proud of and the overpaid wankers we couldn’t shift have stabbed him in the back. Fucking stupid sport anyway. Yay, lets get Di Matteo, Poyet, McClaren or fucking Tony Pulis, fuck off, hope they get 5 games anarl and if its Pulis then Ellis Short can stick me season ticket up his Texan hoop
Looks like you dodged a bullet on Pulliscunt, safcftm. The subhuman piece of UberOrc shite was spotted in the stands at Derby laughing and joking with the Derby directors as Clough jr managed his last game there.
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