Time right for O’Neill — but it will not last
Even Bob Stokoe, who led them to the FA Cup in 1973, eventually resigned in despair after the kind of bleak winless run that Sunderland do better than anyone.
In historical terms, Sunderland are a big club — the sixth-most successful in terms of titles won, the seventh-best supported in terms of average crowds. But in economic terms they are in the bottom half of the Premier League, and they’re a lot closer to the clubs below them than the ones above.
The gap between Sunderland’s historic standing and current potential equates to a gap between what the fans expect and what any manager is able to deliver. Martin O’Neill can’t break that pattern in the long run, but for now he is ideal for the club.
There are plenty of O’Neill sceptics around who will point out that although he took Aston Villa to three sixth-places finishes and a league cup final, he only did so by racking up record financial losses. Others might say that his teams’ robust style is out of kilter with modern trends.
These people are missing the point. The key to O’Neill’s appeal is that he creates the impression that football is more than just a job to him. He does everything with passion, energy and ambition. He gave Leicester City the best years in their history, Celtic their best years since the 1970s, and for a little while he even got the Villa fans excited. If he had to burn a lot of Randy Lerner’s money to do it — well, what else was it there for?
Lerner’s false moves since O’Neill quit Villa suggest that a fool and his daddy’s money are soon parted. The appointment of the preening Gerard Houllier was an understandable if costly mistake; you can see how an inexperienced owner could be taken in by that CV. But the appointment of Alex McLeish, who had just led Villa’s bitter rivals to relegation, was utterly inexplicable.
Lerner could have done with a showman in the dugout — someone who could divert the fans’ attention from the bigger picture at Villa, which is cost-cutting and deflation. Instead he has hired a coach who has got the team playing a style of football so dismal that the dwindling Villa crowds have no choice but to turn on him — there is nothing else for them to do at the matches. They are walking away from the games feeling their team has shown them nothing.
That won’t happen at Sunderland under O’Neill. He is a big personality; emotional, unpredictable and fierce. While hack managers try to plámás people with the kind of genial twinkly-eyed humour that quickly becomes incredibly irritating, O’Neill rants, raves and starts fights. He might not be the most careful manager when it comes to spending, but he understands entertainment, and too many clubs have forgotten that is the business they are in.
