Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
After the departure of Sam Allardyce to England, Sunderland once again go into a new season with another man at the helm, it’s their 6th manager in less than 6 years and this time it’s David Moyes who is charged with the task of keeping The Black Cats in the Premier League.
Having that many managers in such a short space of time is not good for a clubs stability, in fact it makes it non existent. Many felt that Allardyce would have been the man to create that much needed platform of stability and losing him to England would have been a massive blow but the appointment of Moyes may turn out to be even better in the long run.
Moyes will certainly have a lot to prove after the failure of his stint at Old Trafford and a pretty forgettable spell in charge of Real Sociedad. His long reign at Everton seems such a long time ago now and Moyes can’t afford to have a third managerial failure in a row.
And you have to believe that Moyes will use that as the drive and the determination to make sure his time at Sunderland is a successful one. For Sunderland as always success is measured by finishing 17th but Moyes will not just settle for that and will look to pull his new club further away from the drop zone.
If Moyes can do that then it will be a job well done, as this club is crying out for a manager who will be there for a long amount of time and to put some structure into place. For too long now the club has failed to have any real identity as manager after manager has come in with a whole raft of new faces only to then either fail miserably or not see the job through.
A problem that Sunderland will always have is their location, it’s much easier to sell the idea of moving to a Premier League club if that club is based in London, Liverpool or Manchester. It’s a bit harder if it’s in the North East, it’s fair to say that players have moved to Sunderland just for the money and their heart hasn’t really been in it. Moyes will need to weed out anyone is not in this for the long haul and create a squad of hungry and determined players.
The job now for Moyes is build on what Allardyce created last season which included a solid defensive platform and a harmonious squad, attributes that Moyes knows all very well from his time at Everton. More importantly though Moyes needs to instill an identity on the club, his identity on the club. With that in place then Sunderland can begin to look up the table and not nervously over their shoulders.
Sunderland need Moyes just as much as he needs Sunderland this could turn out to be a very fruitful partnership.
