Another Roll of the Dice...

The nuclear button at the Stadium of Light is becoming worn out. Now is the time where managers will be sacked not after an extended run of poor results, but at the slightest suggestion of one.

Five games into a new era, a new dawn, the beginning of a surge up the table for the Black Cats. Change was afoot at Sunderland, and things would be different this time. Or so we were all promised. Managers can’t be sacked five games into the new season can they? Ellis Short isn’t stupid. This isn’t a results based thing. The sacking of Paolo Di Canio had other reasons. The ones we didn’t see.

For argument's sake, let's indulge the idea that it was a results based thing. If this were true, Short needs his head tested. What kind of emotions were running through his brain if that were the case? After Fulham, it was annoyance, Southampton, frustration. Crystal Palace… anger... Arsenal and he’s on the brink then BAM!! West Brom. I’ve had enough Paolo, thanks for the effort but this clearly isn’t working.

Di Canio was sacked 36 days into the campaign. Not even a trigger happy Italian chairman would behave in that way. The fact is that he cannot be judged even remotely fairly on those first games. History will tell you he was a failure. He was not. He was a victim of player power. Dressing room unrest, call it what you will. He took on the squad and lost spectacularly. Di Canio came in to Sunderland professing a tough and uncompromising approach. To be fair he delivered on this. Pre-season was all about training, fitness and hard work. There is no question that he wore his heart on his sleeve, demanding full commitment from all. Every football person in the land could have predicted what kind of attitude and presence Paolo Di Canio would bring to the Stadium of Light. He was easier to read than a Fisher Price ‘My first book’. The buzzwords were fiery, passionate, outspoken. Unfortunately these three ingredients don’t make for a long-term appointment.

The second biggest flaw in his style was the ability to hand out withering assessments of his player’s shortfalls in public. He may as well have put the players in stocks and pelted them with rotten veg outside the Bridges shopping centre in Sunderland. Publicly criticising players serves no purpose. However, if his public statements were so forthright one can only imagine what he came out with behind the scenes. And this, the Centre Circle believes was his biggest mistake.

There was a brutal assessment of Saturdays match the day after at the training ground. It was borderline vitriolic, with no tangible benefit. Players and teams only benefit from a rocket up their backsides if that rocket isn’t something that would obliterate them. Be straight all you like, but don’t be too harsh. Think more sparkler than nuclear bomb for insertion. Certain senior players relayed this to Margaret Byrne, Chief Executive of the club and that, as they say was that for Paolo Di Canio. This squad was not going to allow itself to be bullied by men such as him.

Some may say players earning such money should just take such criticism. However there probably aren’t many bosses who could get away with speaking to their staff in the manner he did and not many staff in any walk of life who would take it. The dismissal of Di Canio has nothing to do with his ability, and everything to do with his attitude. He got top marks in his coaching badges, and carried a self-assurance held by few, if any.

You can be the cleverest person in the class, but it’s worth nothing if you don’t know how to correctly harness this ability. He wanted to change his players, however the hard fact is it is he who needed to change the most.

~Ian Bendelow