POYET ON SACKING
- BY HARRISON BERGERON
- 17 hours ago
- 4 min read
Gus Poyet has opened up about his time at Sunderland, the transfer windows, the club's decision-making and how he dealt with fan revolt at the end of his tenure. He was sacked 11 years ago but these quotes are fresh. Poyet was speaking to SACKED!
HOW THE CLUB WAS RAN
"Sunderland, we were doing bad so that was an external crisis. You see people and you see the press and you see the pressure from outside coming into the club. The summer was awful, the preparations of my first full year were really bad. I didn't have that experience in Brighton. It was the complete opposite with Tony Bloom. The recruitment system of Tony Bloom is outstanding. It's different to most. In Sunderland, the club changed the sporting director situation and the scouts. We started going in a different direction in terms of players. Because it was new, it was my first time I had that situation, I was trying to live it and trying to make decisions through that period. And it was very bad. I never felt that again. You learn from that for the next job if you have a similar situation."
MARCOS ALONSO
"For example, I needed continuity. We finished with a miracle but playing in a certain way. I was able to convince in January of that first season to get Marcos Alonso to come and play for me as a left back from Italy from Fiorentina. Marcos wanted to stay. He was on loan and we needed to buy him. For me, in my mind, in the Premier League, it was common sense. There was no other left back in the world that should come to Sunderland at that time. The player wants to come. He performed unbelievably and we had the money because we were in the Premier League to buy him. But the recruitment system didn't want it. And then he is not coming."
2-2 V WBA
"The first game of the Premier League, my second year and the first day of the season, the first game away at West Brom, we didn't have a right back fit. Premier League. We had one right back in the building. He was injured and not one other right back. I don't know how we drew that game. I still don't know. OK, I remember we were winning and then we were losing 2-1 and I made a few changes that were crazy and we scored. With seven or eight minutes to go we were playing without a full back. It was a disaster. They were coming very well [at us] and we drew."
CLUB IMAGE
"I remember the media officer telling me – because another thing that in the Premier League is very difficult, you need to speak to the press television in 15 minutes after the game, inside 15 minutes. So you're in the dressing room depending on the results. And they knock on the door and you need to come out – and I came out happy. Draw away from home without a right back. And the media officer said to me: ‘Gus, don't say nothing about the right back’. So, what is the club worried about? The public, the fans? What do you care about? The result. Because if not, you lose your job. Then you need to make a decision. And I said to her: ‘You are lucky that we drew because losing, there was nobody stopping me from saying something’. Because it's true."
MANAGERS TAKE THE BLAME
"Nowadays they don't like that and now they can't say anything. It's all like a secret. But the ones that lose the job is us. And we know why we're going to lose the job."
SUPPORTERS TURNED
"They were hitting the bench, the dugout. I think it was incredible because in my last game the previous season, the whole stadium was shouting ‘Gustavo Poyet’ for five minutes after the game that we would go safe against West Brom in that incredible run of games and I stayed on the pitch on my own practically."
BOARD NEGOTIATIONS
"I think that is when you realise the mistakes that you made in the summer, not being good enough to convince the people above you that those who were not the right signings. So you need to find a way of convincing them. It’s not about being strong or having a problem or friction, it is a way of convincing them. So you need to convince them somehow that: ‘No, that's not the way’. Sometimes I see people that they are in clubs that they don't have too much money and they sign them players and say: ‘How do they do it?’ I don't know. I try to be open and sit down with them and discuss how much money we have got and blah, blah, blah. And we can help it."
SIGNING THE LOAN HEROES
"And listen, we had three players on loan at Sunderland: Marcos Alonso, the South Korean Ki and Fabio Borini. They were outstanding. So when the season finished my idea was: ‘Let's get them first'. I don't care about the rest. I'm not making this up. I don't care about the right back now. Give me those three. Not one came that pre-season."
FINANCIAL VS FOOTBALLING SENSE
"There are these things that are common sense in football to maintain something. And I agree that you need to sell players… financials. But when you have the opposite thing, when you suffer so much and you have got something, you need to listen to the coach a little bit more. And if it's not possible, because sometimes it's not possible, because there is no money, come out and say it because we cannot say it. Because they will say we're going against the club. The club needs to come out and say: ‘we cannot sign anyone because there is no money’. This is what the coach wants. Let's get all together. You said it, you know? All together. It's clear. But the people think because players are coming that you are signing those players. You cannot come out and say: ‘I didn't want him. I asked for this one’. So those kind of football secrets, 99% they go against the coach."
