OTD: ALEX NEIL APPOINTED
- BY THOMAS THORNTON
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
On this day in 2022, former Sunderland manager Alex Neil was appointed by the club. He managed 24 games whilst on Wearside, winning 12 of them, and got us out of League One in the process via the play-offs. Unfortunately, his reputation has been massively tarnished due to the way he left the club.
After Jack Ross, Phil Parkinson and Lee Johnson had failed to end our third tier misery, Neil was appointed in February 2022, revealed at Durham train station in SAFC training gear courtesy of a grainy image from a fan. He came in and soon implemented the changes necessary to make us sturdier defensively, took some players out of the team and managed to go on a 16 game unbeaten run. His press conferences were a breath of fresh air; succinct, knowledgeable and down to earth. Neil provided us with the greatest moment we had in years (until it was superseded by that win against Sheffield United three years later) in that comprehensive and professional 2-0 play-off win against Wycombe Wanderers.
Games against Oxford United, Gillingham, Fleetwood Town and Sheffield Wednesday proved the tenacity of Alex Neil’s transformed Sunderland side and, in Neil, we had the first League One manager you could place total faith in to earn us promotion. The fans loved him but, despite many people thinking the club had got under his skin, he left for Stoke City in August 2022 following promotion.
In 48 hours, Neil had gone from being one of the most loved men on Wearside to a money-hungry snake. He was even sitting in Ewood Park watching Stoke, despite still being employed by Sunderland AFC. The Lads had a big game against Norwich City earlier that day and the fans chanted "F*ck Alex Neil."
It really was a bizarre series of events in such a short turnaround. From the press conference being delayed in the morning the day before the match, then being pushed back to 2pm, to reports later claiming Neil was in a car headed to Stoke for negotiations. Working in A Love Supreme that day was chaos because the story was moving so quickly and the mood around the club seemed to instantly change.
The Stoke hierarchy were hoping that the appointment of Alex Neil would turn their season around but things didn't do to plan. Stoke were extremely inconsistent and finished 16th. Meanwhile, Sunderland replaced Neil with the established Tony Mowbray and secured the play-offs. One journalist even asked Neil if he regretted his decision, in which he responded with "That's a ridiculous thing to say."
However, Stoke did beat the Lads 5-1 at the Stadium of Light in March 2023 and then they beat us again 2-1 at their ground in October, so he did have his own little moments of victory. After 66 games in charge, and just 22 wins, Neil was sacked by Stoke in December and would be out of work until the following December. He took over at Championship Millwall, where he remains to this day. We got some revenge over him in March 2025, as we beat his team 1-0 at the SoL. At the moment, he has them in the play-offs, so we could very well meet out former boss in the Premier League next season.
