OTD: JACK ROSS APPOINTED

On this day in 2018, young up-and-coming manager Jack Ross took charge of Sunderland AFC, who had recently been relegated to League One.

His first managerial job was with Alloa Athletic, a part-time club. They were relegated to Scottish League One in his first season. His contract was renewed and his side went on a club-record 10 game winning streak in all competitions at the start of season. A side composed of people who play football but might do a bit of plumbing on the side, pegged Celtic to a 0–0 draw for the first 83 minutes at Celtic Park in the Scottish League Cup only to concede two late goals. That was a great showing for them considering a year later we were dismantled by Celtic 5-0 at home. Ross left the side in second place in the Scottish League One and moved to St Mirren.

This is where he would gain the attention of the higher ups at Sunderland. St Mirren went 14 points clear at the top in the Scottish Championship in February, they were storming the league. Ross's decision to stay at the club, amidst speculation linking him to English clubs, was vindicated: his team went on to win the Scottish Championship and he received the PFA Scotland Manager of the Year award for the 2017–18 season.

Jack Ross, an up and coming manager and something of a left field appointment, was the man tasked with quickly reviving our fortunes and getting us promoted from League One at the first instance. Sadly, it was not to be. That first season, we showed a penchant for 1-1 draws.

Watching his side, with some of the best players we had whilst playing in the third tier, was often soul destroying. Losing the free-scoring Josh Maja's goals in January and replacing him with Will Grigg for stupid money, against Ross' wishes, meant he was somewhat hamstrung in attack. His 16 month tenure will be remembered for the agony of the two Wembley defeats as well as a truly incredible amount of draws - 27 in total.

If we could've blended the apparent defensive stability of Ross, we only lost 10 times in his 75 games, with the attacking quality that Lee Johnson's football often showed, people with memories that are faded and patchy due to League One's assault on our collective psyche might think we would have some kind of crazy and successful hybrid manager. However, we scored 129 goals and conceded 87 in Johnson's 78 games and in Ross' 75, we scored 124 and conceded 73. Ross and Johnson's approaches seemed radically different in my memory, however, ultimately both of them were wrongheaded and failed. Neither was worse than Phil Parkinson.