As I am sure many of you will be aware by this point, Sunderland AFC have 'parted company' with head coach Paolo Di Canio just five games into the new Premier League season. Here I am going to give my thoughts on the sacking and who should replace Di Canio as manager.
Few football fans will be surprised that this is what happens in the modern game. There have been many cases where managers have been surprisingly dismissed such as Chris Hughton at Newcastle or Nigel Adkins from Southampton to name a few.
Southampton had been beaten twice in Adkins' last 12 Premier League matches, the last of which was a deserved 2-2 draw from 2-0 down at then Champions League winners Chelsea.
Newcastle were 11th at that point in the 2010-11 season in December which was not long after Hughton delivered Newcastle's famous 5-1 victory over Sunderland at St James Park, something which would have likely put him in legendary status.
The same can be said with Di Canio who guided Sunderland to a 3-0 win at St James Park last season.
I believe in that moment when Martin O'Neill was dismissed, owner Ellis Short brought in Di Canio in an emergency bid to avoid relegation which, to be fair, worked at the time. That is not to say he isn't a good manager but it seems the jump from League One to the Premier League was too big a jump too quickly.
As many of you already know, I gave up my season card in a bid to show the team and the club how let down I felt by last season and felt that I didn't want to experience that again. Instead of going to the Stadium of Light to enjoy myself watching some good football, I was dreading each visit, wondering which Sunderland would turn up today! I kept on seeing negative, defensive and honestly boring showings on the pitch and I didn't feel I got my money's worth.
But with Di Canio, I saw more attacking and entertaining football, something which I constantly moaned and pined for last season. But one thing always seems to go wrong and in this case, we are letting in FAR too many goals.
I have gotten into football only in the last three years, but my family's team was always Sunderland so I, of course, follow in their footsteps.
The 2010-11 season was when I really started to get the game and had a season card for the next two seasons.
When Steve Bruce was sacked, Martin O'Neill was the popular choice, a confessed SAFC fan as a boy and someone who as a manager guided Aston Villa to challenge for European places and won trophies with Celtic.
O'Neill started brilliantly and last year was meant to be a good one for the club. Not for the first time, the fans have been disappointed.
Sunderland have always been known as a yo-yo club between the first and second tiers of English football and as a fan I want the club to be doing better than this.
I kept on having the same thoughts about O'Neill in particular. At Villa, as I said, they were competing for Europe. Why didn't that happen at Sunderland? Where was OUR top seven push? Why did we have to be near the relegation zone while others had success?
Part of me feels like people wised up to O'Neill and forced him to use negative tactics as they learned how to play against him. But when he first came in, I do not remember Sunderland playing so defensively that it looked like they were playing for a draw rather than a win.
My point in all of this is we never seem to just have a good start followed by a consistently good season, there has always got to be disappointment and negativity. I am personally getting fed up of bad starts to each season and be set up for another year of missed opportunities.
While pundits have slated Sunderland across the board, we brought in 14 new players. That is arguably too many and the 'they need time to gel' argument is thrown in. But I have a question? Turn that UNDESERVED defeat on the opening day against Fulham and turn it into a win, turn the draw at Southampton into a win; would people still be saying these things? I am not so sure.
In the season, it only takes two or three good results to completely change people's perspectives on things. But looking at our next few games, including Liverpool and Manchester United, I just don't see where our first win is going to come from.
Do I think he deserved to be sacked? No. Am I surprised? No. But it is shame that no-one gets any time these days in the game. I think we are trying to avoid what happened to QPR but only time will tell.
Roberto Di Matteo, Gus Poyet and Tony Pulis have been shortlisted as potential candidates for the managers job. Personally I would like Di Matteo. Many have said Poyet isn't experienced in the Premier League but if he isn't given a first chance he will remain inexperienced. And as for Tony Pulis, he had Stoke playing counter attacking football and I do NOT want to go back to that again.
Tell me what you think and if you have managed to read all of this then thanks for taking your time to do so.
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