Today's Telegraph


you know its ok to change your mind every so often if the evidence presents itself that you should - and that's my problem with "the model".

surely not everyone has to have - resale value - and it is permissible if you think that young players would benefit - from buying or signing some older players.

People change their minds and way of living and working all the time, in real life, and the club may wish to modify the model whenever they want.
 
Part 1 of the article

Sunderland want dynamism, modernity and youth – not serial winner Tony Mowbray​

An inherent tension between Mowbray and the young minds in the boardroom eventually made the relationship irreconcilable

Luke Edwards, NORTHERN FOOTBALL WRITER5 December 2023 • 9:56am

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Tony Mowbray was loved by Sunderland fans after nearly guiding them to back-to-back promotions CREDIT: Getty Images/Stu Forster

Amid all the kind words and usual platitudes that form the core of an official club statement to announce that a manager has been sacked, Sunderland made one thing abundantly clear: it is sporting director Kristjaan Speakman’s way or not at all.
In removing the much-liked veteran manager, Tony Mowbray, Speakman and the largely silent club owner, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, Sunderland’s two most powerful people, reminded everyone who is in charge and which direction they are convinced the club should be travelling.

Problems began with shock play-off​

When Mowbray began to question the logic in the recruitment strategy and the obsession with signing young players from across the globe, to nurture, develop and eventually sell on for a profit to reinvest in more of the same, he was cast aside. He warned, privately, that promotion was highly unlikely.
Tension that first manifested itself in the dying embers of last season’s unexpected top-six finish and narrow play-off semi-final defeat by Luton Town – when injuries deprived Sunderland of their most reliable and experienced defenders – had bubbled below the surface for months.
Sources have described an “uneasy truce” in the summer. Mowbray had backed Speakman into a corner, provocatively claiming after that defeat at Kenilworth Road that he did not know if he would return as manager this season.
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Kristjaan Speakman has a clear vision for the future of Sunderland CREDIT: Focus Images/Ross Johnston
His popularity with supporters, fully appreciative of the job he had done in taking a newly promoted Championship team to the brink of promotion, protected him. He could afford to poke his bosses and get away with it.
They would not dare sack someone adored by fans. They were not brave enough to do that, but there was inevitably a suspicion they were biding their time.
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The sack came with Sunderland sitting ninth in the Championship, just three points off the play-offs, but with six defeats in their last 12 games. Very few supporters had called for it to happen.
Mowbray was well aware of reports earlier in the year suggesting that Sunderland had already started looking for his replacement. It looked like succession planning had begun.
Speakman and Dreyfus may have only been “window shopping” and could argue it was best practice to plan ahead, but it caused suspicion and mistrust.
Hands were shaken and everyone got on with their jobs, said the right things in public and tried to move on, but Mowbray knew things were going to be harder. Particularly when the team’s best striker, the injury-prone Ross Stewart, was sold to Southampton and star loan signing Amad Diallo went back to Manchester United in the summer.
Suddenly the 60-year-old, who had achieved far more than anyone expected in getting Sunderland into the play-offs, looked like a stop-gap manager. Brought in as a safe pair of hands after the shock of Alex Neil’s desertion to Stoke City in August last year, but not viewed as the long-term answer.
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How come is Mowbray a 'serial winner'. I think he's been a manager for 21 seasons and he has had 2 promotions and 2 relegations in that time. He was manager at Celtic and didn't win anything there which must be a bit of a record as Celtic win something every year. He did a decent job for us but to call him a 'Serial winner' is just plain wrong. These days to compete and get promoted from the Championship you need someone special as coach when up against those with parachute payments. This is seen at Ipswich and Luton last year.
 
I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the reasons Mowbray had been binned was the fact he refused to use certain younguns tbh like.

He’s hardly going to boost the confidence of players like jewi and hemir when he practically slags them off in his interviews.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying they’re great but he doesn’t give them the lickings of a dog most the time.
 
"From the outside looking in, Mowbray was doing a good job within testing parameters. ....But if they get the next appointment wrong, supporters may well start to disagree with the way they are doing things too."

I'm happy when we're winning games and playing well and getting to the play-offs .... but we're not playing well at the moment - is that the manager or the parameters? Opinions differ Time will tell

If the model says we sell the players that flourish and replace with young, inexperienced ones, the risk is that we end up having a team that is never quite good enough and pining for the last player who flourished (Amad?) ..... and if we do get to the FAPL, we end up like Burnley, who are using a similar model, winning 4 or 5 matches before being relegated.
 
Wasn't unprompted. There was massive speculation which proved to be highly credible and that was coming out of the club ine way or another when he should have been able to concentrate on the matches. The club's management were very disrespectful.
Who said it was coming out of the club? It could have came from the coaches we were looking at side...

He also brought it up in an interview after the game unprompted actually.
 
Chelsea have had 21 managers since 2000
Watford have had 28 managers since 2000
Palace are on their 29th manager since 2000

We aren’t even an outlier, we’re bang average.
And amongst those are resignations and retirement

Can’t really think of one manager who even with hindsight we shouldn’t have sacked! Poyet maybe, although he looked defeated by the end

KLD so far has got 2 right for the immediate progression. Let’s see if he can get the 3rd one right too and maybe with a longer progression in mind
 
This is all reminiscent of when we gave Bruce the sack and all his mates in the media rallied to come to his defence and attack the club.

I don’t agree that KLD only sees it as a business project either. He wouldn’t be at Eppleton in the freezing cold watching the u21s when he could be living it up in Monaco if he did.
Just thinking about this. What I've learned from this waves of articles I've read this morning:

A. Client Journalism is still a massive thing - must be a nightmare for managers who don't play along.

B. Tony absolutely fancies another job and he and his agent are working double time to boost his credentials and spin this sacking.
 
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its amazing like that his departure was a semi shock but in the 2 days since all of a sudden everybody is an expert in why and how he left...

Id be surprised if the media even knew our starting 11 from the last game because they show fuck all interest usually
 

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