The only thing that surprised me about Ricky Sbragia’s resignation was the timing of it, coming just 20 or 30 minutes after the final whistle. It was odd to watch Niall Quinn speaking about his manager not wanting to take up the option of another year as manager, whilst Sbragia stood there impassively.

Now it seems that the man who dared to question Roy Keane’s scattergun approach to transfer policy, correctly in my opinion, Ellis Short, is finalising his deal to buy out the board and complete his takeover at the Stadium of Light. A transfer kitty of £200 million will then apparently be made available to whoever takes the hot seat over which just makes me throw my hands up in exasperation.

60 years ago, Sunderland were known as the “Bank of England” due to their wealth but times have moved on and once again we’re faced with another club who seem to have no realisation of where they are in the scheme of things. The names being mentioned with the vacancy go from the ludicrous, Frank Rijkaard, to the obvious, Alan Curbishley, to the stupid, Steve Bruce being a Newcastle fan. The number one target, Martin Jol looks set for his dream job as Ajax manager; can Sunderland honestly think they can match Ajax in terms of appeal?

Now I’ve nothing against Sunderland wanting to better themselves but once again this is a club that the new owner assumes that just because it’s in the Premiership, everyone will be queuing up to join them. No offence to Sunderland fans but Short must be living in cloud cuckoo land if he thinks that they can attract the quality of players or a top quality manager he seems to think will want to join them. 

Despite the amounts of money washing around in the Premiership, to attract the top players you either need to be based in London, or an internationally known club such as Liverpool or Manchester United. Sunderland are neither at the present moment and Short needs to look at how tough Manchester City are finding it to attract the big name players they assumed would be desperate to join them. Regardless of what a lot of people think, the top players want to win trophies, with money being a distant second.

You can have all the money in the world, but as in Sunderland’s case, you have no real international presence or modern history, you will struggle to improve the player quality with signings from abroad. Look at Newcastle in their pomp or Leeds United when they were going well, which top quality international stars did they sign? None. Not one, because of geographical location and history of success.

They may have signed some great players, but not one of true top level international quality. Ginola was a swear word in France by the time he joined Newcastle after being blamed for the goal that cost France qualification to USA 94. Faustino Asprilla was a loose cannon, unable to fit in anywhere, a risk too far for many managers.

With Short trying to throw money at Sunderland, he may be very surprised of the actual lack of interest from a top quality manager to join him. With several massive clubs in Europe needing new managers, Juventus, Munich, Real Madrid, Ajax, PSG, Chelsea, Celtic and German champions Wolfsburg to name a few, he’ll realise that money isn’t everything in Premiership football.  Can Sunderland honestly compete with those sides, regardless of the money the may have?

Even in England, they only have to look up the road to Newcastle United to see the type of player having loads of money can give you. Inconsistent, infuriating and unwanted else where, the perception of the last few years in the UK was that if a player went to Newcastle, it was purely for the money as they had no chance of any silverware.

Short needs to be realistic at Sunderland and grow them steadily, otherwise he could end up with a frustrating summer and team full of mercenary players. Once again, a quick glance up the road will tell them all they need to know about that policy.

Ricky Sbragia has left his post as manager of Sunderland.

It has been announced after Sunderland’s home defeat to Chelsea, Ricky Sbragia has stepped down -despite avoiding relegation.

Sbragia initially took over at the Stadium Of Light in December as caretaker manager in the wake of Roy Keane’s departure. Following a 1-0 defeat to Manchester United, Sbragia went on to take seven points from the next three games – sticking four goals past West Brom and Hull respectively. After pressure from his players and fans alike Sbragia was appointed manager of Sunderland on an 18 month contract. Sunderland were promptly beaten 3-0 by Everton in his first game as manager.

Since his full time appointment, Sunderland have mustered a poor 14 points from 19 games – which is what led the club to fighting for their lives on the final day. I always felt that Sbragia was reluctant to take the job and appeared to have been pressured into it. During his caretaker spell he was always very coy about taking the job on full time and this was demonstrated in his post-match interiew after the victory at Hull. While providing his post-match reaction for British televeision one of his players is clearly heard shouting: ’give him the job’ – the Scot not only looked embarrassed, he looked uneasy. However, that could merely be my interpretation of events.

Todays announcement following the match came as no real surprise to me, and one assumes that the board if not the players were fully aware this was to be the former defender’s last game at the helm. Rumours of a full-take over by American investor Ellis Short have been rife over the last 24 hours and that the Short wanted his own man in charge. With that in mind a thought creeps in that maybe Sbragia didn’t jump, he was pushed -  a day before his 53rd birthday.

The next seven days could big ones on Wierside as we await clarification as to how accurate the rumours of Short’s buyout of the club are. Once we have an idea of the shape of things at boardroom level at the club we might be able to profile the kind of man likley to take up reigns at the Stadium Of Light. That being said, there might be a new man in charge within the next few days anyhow.

Martin Jol and Steve Mclaren are already being linked to the Black Cats job but you would feel that Mclaren would be a somewhat unpopular choice. I have a strange feeling in my stomach (hopefully it isn’t something I have eaten!) that if the buyout rumours are true, even Niall Quinn may be a candidate for the job – particularly if Short wants someone he knows and trusts in charge.

As I update this post, Sbragia has since been quoted as saying the following:

“I spoke with chairman Niall Quinn this week and I think we need a bigger name to carry the club further. I’ve done everything I came to, I’ve kept the club in the Premier League. I would like to have done it better but I’m pleased we stayed up.”

 The club have also released their own statement in the last hour, to read it please click here: http://www.safc.com/news/sunderland-afc-statement.html

Who will feel the effect most if they relegated to the Championship?

With West Bromwich Albion’s fate sealed last week we can now prepare ourselves for a dramatic conclusion to the Premier League season on Sunday. The neutral (including yours truly) will relish it and will want to see as many twists and turns as possible. Anyone supporters involved will have struggled to sleep for a week.

We all have our own predictions as to who will go down and what the sequence of results to will be. What I wondered is what effect will relegation have on the clubs involved.

West Bromwich Albion – 31 points (already relegated)

Even the most biased of Baggies supporters could not have been surprised about the clubs fate this season. However there seems relatively little for the Hawthorns club to worry about. Brom perenially spend within their limits upon promotion and Tony Mowbray has followed similiar traits. Signings that broke the £1 Million mark included: Scott Carson (£3.5 million), Marek Cech (£1.4 million) ,Luke moore (£3 million), Zuiverloon (3.2 million) , Valero (4.7 million), Aboulaye Meitie (£2 million) and Roman bednar at  £2.3 million.

Not taking into account players that left that Hawthorns, the Throstles have forked out around £20 million. No doubt a  few of the above will leave to recoup some of this. It is also likely that some contracts will include a drop in wages upon relegation ,West Brom should be relatively comfortble providing they spend their parachute monies wisely next season and offload a few big-earners.

Middlesbrough – 32 points

Although ‘Boro are technically £85 million in debt, the vast majority is owed to chairman Steve Gibson – which is the equivalent of owing your Dad 200 quid. Conisdering Gibson’s patience with Gareth Southgate it seems highly unlikey he will let the club suffer. However should ‘Boro suffer the drop (and it seems likely they will) they will have to get wheeling and dealing quickly. One of the first names out of the door will be Alfonso Alves, who was signed for a fee rumoured to be £12.7 million and one shudders to think what kind of wages the Brazillian is on at the Riverside. After breaking his foot against in the relegation six-pointer against Newcastle and a poor goals return for the club, ‘Boro may have to brace themselves for a big financial loss. The other big name out of the door, and the one Middlesbrough will miss most from an on-field perspective is Stewart Downing. A host of clubs will have relished the prospect of Boro’s demise in order to sign Downing and it is thought that Spurs will lead the chase after keeping tabs on the winger for considerable time. Boro will be hoping for auction fever from rival clubs in order to raise as much cash as possible. It will come as no surprise that Tuncay and David Wheater will also raise the eyebrow for a host of clubs, with Robert Huth also likely to be the subject of some interest.

Should Middlesborough fail to survive, the winds of change are likely to blow through this cold part of the country including the possibility of a new manager.  With numerous players likely to leave and taking into account the squads lack of experience, ’Boro may well have to be happy with a season of stability next season rather than a promotion charge.

Newcastle – 34 Points

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. There may have been talks of a conspiracy theory in regard to the strength of Manchester United’s team selection at Hull. But based on perfomances alone, Newcastle are where they deserve to be. If Newcastle are relegated we will witness a real exodus from St James Park, which in turn demonstrates the extent of the problems the Magpies will face. The list of players likely to leave include: Michael Owen, Mark Viduka, Obamfemi Martins, Damien Duff, Alan Smith, Nicky Butt, Jose Enrique, Geremi, Gutierrez and possibly Steven Taylor. If things continue in the trational ways of the Tyneside soap-opera then you wouldn’t rule out yet further changes at either boardroom or management level. Chairman Mike Ashley has been ostracised from the club before and if he cannot either persuade Shearer to take the job permanently and/or the Toon don’t get off to a flyer in the championship he knows showing his face in the Sir John Hall stand would be a tad unwise.

Newcastle will have to do their best to wheel and deal as early as possible in order to get the new players to gel as a unit early in the forthcoming season. The first thing they need to do is oust Joe Kinnear from his role, he isn’t physically fit to do job, and if the club are indeed relegated the job starts the minute the final whistle is sounded on Sunday. Although sacking managers isn’t a sign of stability, do any of us genuinely think that Kinnear would stay in the job until the end of next season – fit or not? With expectations and pressure form the fans likley to be huge and the club not in the best of health financially, relegation would hit United very, very hard.

Hull City - 35 Points

And to think the start Hull City had. The Tigers are clawing on for dear life in the Premier League and require one last roar this Sunday to ensure survival. Hull are likely to face a considerably weakened Manchester United team on Sunday which may give them half a chance of stealing a point. Whether any of that will come to fruition is another matter. Should Hull find themselves with an instant return to the Championship you would feel that financially the club will not suffer to the degree some of their rivals will. City were desperately unlucky to lose Jimmy Bullard so quickly after his £5 million move from Fulham and could find him leaving the club sooner rather than later at a cut-price fee.  Bernard Mendy and Andy Dawson will also have attracted some attention, Giovvani’s early season exploits may tempt a rival club into a gamble. Hull however – are sound financially, have a good boardroom and a good manager in Phil Brown. Providing they can keep the nucleus of the squad together City should be stable and will look to try and bounce back at the first attempt.

Sunderland – 36  Points

The fans and players alike pleaded for the board to give Ricky Sbragia the managers job on a permanent basis, the phrase ‘be careful what you wish for’ now springs to mind. Should Sunderland fail to beat Chelsea in Guus Hiddink’s last league game in charge, the Mackems may need another black cat in the dressing room for luck. The club would appear financially sound given the money they have spent in the last few seasons however I would still expect a few to leave. Sunderland shouldn’t really be in this trouble given what they have spent over the last couple of seasons. If the club are confined to the Championship, it is likely they will look to offload the wages of Steed Malbranque and Craig Gordon. I cannot see Kenwyne Jones staying at the Stadium of Light, particularly with Tottenham knocking on Niall Quinn’s door. Kieran Richardson and Anton Ferdinand will attract offers and no doubt the pair pick up a fair size wage packet each too. This being said, Ellis short is now linked to a buy out of the club followed by a change of manager and a £200 million transfer kitty – if Sunderland stay up and we are to beleive the tabloids.

Can the Black Cats beat the drop?

The relegation battle is reaching its culmination. This weekend Middlesbrough faced Manchester United, Liverpool hosted Newcastle and Sunderland took on Everton, with Hull still to play Aston Villa.

Sunderland entertained Everton at the Stadium of Light and succumbed to a 2-0 defeat and put more pressure on themselves to reach the magical 40 points total.  The Black Cats have now only won 1 of their last 10 games and look have lost the vigour Ricky Sbragia gave them when he was appointed Roy Keane’s successor. His side seemed flat and nervous whilst Everton took the game to the Mackems, looking to cement 5^th place and Europa League football next season.

Goals from Steven Pienaar and Marouane Fellaini gave Everton the victory, which means Sunderland need, for me, 5 points in the final three fixtures to make sure of survival. Two away games against Bolton and Portsmouth respectively are must win fixtures, as the final game of the season is a match up with Chelsea. 

Against Everton, Sunderland did have their chances, most notably from Danny Collins, whose header and Steed Malbranque’s cross/shot, were both tipped over the bar by Tim Howard. Anyhow, this was as good as it got for the Mackems as Everton asserted their physical prowess, technical superiority and tactical command over a lackluster Sunderland side.

Ricky Sbragia must count himself lucky that his team put together an admirable run of form when he first took over the reigns full time. After an excellent performance against Manchester United despite the 1-0 defeat were followed by 4-0 and 4-1 victories over West Brom and Hull, respectively. 

Whether Sunderland can reach these heights in the forthcoming games remains to be seen, but the players Sbragia has at his disposal do posses enough quality to keep the Mackems in the Premier League. In Kenwyne Jones and Djibril Cisse, they have two forwards that are more than capable of scoring the goals to keep them up.

The physical presence of Jones is enough to trouble the most solid of defences, coupled with Cisse’s pace, a match can truly be made in the Northeast. Aside from the form both have showed earlier this season, where in parts, both have been woeful in front of goal. They have 18 goals between them, which is not good enough. But three solid showings and a few goals between them, then all would be forgiven.

Quality is also prevalent throughout the side, with the aforementioned Malbranque, Tal Ben-Haim, Anton Ferdinand not to forget the British record signing for a goalkeeper, Craig Gordon. The talent is there and one final push is all that is needed.

I would expect a minimum of 3 points from the final games, although this is not a total that would surpass the magical 40 point mark, I feel it would be enough given the form of the teams around them. Sunderland are not out of the frame just yet, and a miraculous turn of form from all those around them would be needed to see the Wearsiders relegated. Rest on these laurels, and thus must fight to ensure survival is in their own hands.

When Roy Keane walked out of the Stadium of Light back in December, they had 15 points from 15 games. He’d become exasperated as his expensively recruited side simply hadn’t gelled as quickly as he’d hoped and felt he couldn’t inspire them from the insipid performances they’d shown, especially in his last game in charge, the 4-1 home defeat to Bolton Wanderers.

Yet, when the dust settled it seemed it was board member Ellis Short that seemed to have got under Keane’s skin, as he questioned his tactics and signings, which having funded his Summer extravagance, you would feel he was right to do. Perhaps being American, he was not under the spell of Keane as much as some in the UK but I’ve yet to meet another manager that has his club send letters to forthcoming opponents advising them of rules regarding Keane. The Championship will be delighted with the return of someone who refuses pictures to be taken in the same room as him, regardless if he’s in shot or not, no autographs under any circumstances or for club staff not to speak to him unless spoken to.Delightful.

Once Keane had walked away from Sunderland, Ricky Sbragia was named as the Caretaker Manager for a four game period that saw the Black Cats garner 7 points and the players seemed 100% behind the new regime. So much so that the Sunderland Chairman, Niall Quinn, rewarded him with an 18 month contract to become the new manager of Sunderland and things were looking rosy in SR5.

Fast forward to the end of April, Sunderland have just been routed by West Bromich Albion 3-0 at the Hawthorns as The Baggies gave the best display of the season against a disinterested, dispirited bunch of players in red and white stripes. The only thing missing was Keane back on the bench snarling and staring at the pitch. It was a concerning performance, a performance that will be given the Mackems sleepless nights this weekend, it was the performance of a team in real trouble.

The one benefit for Sunderland is that they’re still out of the bottom 3, regardless of Newcastle’s result tomorrow night. With 4 games to go, they can still save themselves from the ignominy of relegation but they need a win. Any kind of win, but they need one and fast but it’s not the easiest run in they could have had. Two home games against the cup finalists Everton, on May 3rd and Chelsea on the final day book end two tough away trips against Bolton and Portsmouth.

The team seem to have fallen back into the bad habits and lacklustre displays of Keane’s tenure that saw him walk away back in December. Can they really survive without picking up any further points, regardless of how poor Newcastle, Hull, Middlesbrough and West Brom have been playing. To hope that none of the four sides below them pick up any points between now and May 24th would be suicidal at best.Their rivals though hardly have it any easier:

Middlesbrough: Home to Manchester United, Away at Newcastle, Home to Aston Villa, Away at West Ham United.

Newcastle:  Portsmouth at Home, Liverpool Away, Home to Middlesbrough & Fulham and then travel to Aston Villa.

West Brom: Spurs Away, Wigan and Liverpool at Home and finish with a trip to Blackburn

Hull City have Villa away a week on Monday, Home to Stoke City, Away at Bolton and finish with Manchester United at Home.

Sbragia needs to try and rectify something in the next few days because they cannot gamble on the teams below them not gaining any points. We only have to look at Fulham last season, relegated with 30 minutes to go at Manchester City, they recovered and won their last 3 games to save themselves and condemn Reading to fall through the trapdoor on goal difference.

The side seems so short of confidence but when you look at the side, they’ve probably got the best squad in the bottom 5 by some way. Yet, whilst Jones and Cisse seem to getting the flack of not getting the goals, the rest of Sunderland’s squad have chipped in with 11 goals between them all season. Yes, 11. Cisse and Jones have 18 in the league so far, but the rest of the team simply aren’t weighing in to help out and for them to have any chance of survival, the rest of the squad have to stand up and be counted.

The Black Cats are going to need more than luck and other teams to stay up.

Sunderland rose to the Premier League two seasons ago with Roy Keane’s magnetism, and it was the same presence that kept them afloat last season.  The reform movement lost steam when Keane left, and Sunderland have been rudderless since Ricky Sbragia transcended the interim label.  The club is in fourteenth place, but just three points above the drop zone.

Form: Sunderland have nine points from their last eight matches, winning two and drawing another three.  The two wins came at home against Stoke and Fulham, which isn’t so impressive, but the type of wins they need to stay up.  Though, the eight game sample sounds better than it should, because Sunderland are winless in their last five.

Schedule: Sunderland’s schedule is not hospitable.  Three out of their four home matches are against Manchester United, Everton and Chelsea, squelching opportunities to shoot for a home win.  They may get a reprieve if the final Chelsea match is a dead rubber, but even a deflated Chelsea team could compete.  The other home tie is against Hull City.  Sunderland also travel to West Ham, West Brom, Bolton and Portsmouth.

Injuries: Sunderland are not really beset with crucial injuries, with Teemu Tainio being the most significant loss.  Amazingly, Djibril Cisse has not broken his leg, but there’s still time.  Their talented players are healthy.  They just need to play well.

Prognosis: Sunderland have not beaten a noteworthy team all season, going winless against the top eight.  Besides the occasional flash of brilliance, they don’t create and they struggle to score, managing just 29 in 30 matches.  Sunderland need to win two to three of the next eight games to ensure their safety.  It doesn’t look likely.  If Newcastle catches some luck, Sunderland may be relegated instead.

This post is part of a series on relegation.  Check out our other posts on Bolton and Hull City.

An interesting story coming out of this weekend comes from the lips of Arsene Wenger. In a story that started to circulate on Saturday, Arsene spoke about his concern that after the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team this past week, football could become a target for terrorists. Wenger isn’t a rookie to terrorism. He was managing in Japan during the deadly 1995 Sarin gas attack in Tokyo. The other thing Wenger brought up is that there have been false alarms at the Emirates before, but nothing serious. Wenger’s quote “It has turned out to be nothing – like a bag in the stadium that somebody forgot.”

Wenger also brings up the point about not getting police escorts before games, but teams associated with major championships (World Cup, Euros, ect) get them. That just boils down to the fact security is budgeted into those competitions. I’m sure if you pay the London police, or any other city police where you are, you can get an escort.

I do agree with him that it is kinda surprising that football hasn’t been targeted. Then again, it probably has been targeted and we just haven’t heard about it. We know that security has been tight around competitions of late, and it’s only going to get tighter in the future. All we can do is keep our eyes out and hope for the best, along with allowing those who are involved in security to do their jobs.

Other Stories
It would appear there is a new twist to the news reported about Liverpool’s sale talks with a Kuwaiti consortium. Investment bank Seymour Pierce is taking the consortium to court over non payment of fees associated with becoming executive advisers to the takeover bid. For now the claim is just north of 300,000 pounds. If a sale is to happen, that fee will increase by seven million.

It does appear though the takeover talks will continue, divisions looks to be coming back. One member of the consortium will only deal with Tom Hicks. Seems like history is about to repeat itself. Could we see a situation where only Hicks sells?

In other Liverpool news, Rafa Benitez has lost Yossi Benayoun for the next two weeks with a hamstring injury. Rafa is also admitting he is forcing the fitness of Fernando Torres so he is ready for Real Madrid on Tuesday night. I don’t think Benayoun is that big of a loss, even though he did score in Madrid. I wouldn’t risk Torres unless he is 100 percent. Don’t gamble the short term success only to lose out over the rest of this season.

You have to love Sir Alex Ferguson’s needling of Jose Mourinho ahead of their Champions League clash on Wednesday. He thinks that Inter will play for penalties. Sir Alex, you aren’t Rafa Benitez and you can only hope a repeat of Porto doesn’t happen. Fergie is also hoping that Rio Ferdinand is fit enough to play. Something tells me that an injection will be used in order to aid recovery.

Fergie also gets personal and admits he’s fearful about what will happen when he retires. I know those in the UK may not get this analogy, but it’s the only one I can see that fits. I could see what happened to Bear Bryant, former American football head coach of the University of Alabama. After coaching his last game on December 29, 1982 before retirement, he died January 26, 1983. Now Sir Alex is in much better health than Bryant was, but there is something to missing the routine that I could see him missing.

And finally, Ricky Sbragia is not happy with the careless nature Sunderland threw away three away three points against Tottenham.