On Saturday, Alex Neil will return to the Stadium of Light for the first time since his shock exit earlier this season.
Given the nature of his departure, it seems pretty obvious that Neil will receive a chorus of boos around the ground – and rightly so. The unprofessionalism on display was genuinely jaw-dropping. Okay, he wanted to leave. That’s fair enough. But to travel to Stoke the day before his team had a huge game against Norwich, and to then be absent from the dugout while still officially employed by the club, left a bitter taste in the mouths of everyone involved.
He later admitted one reason for leaving was that he wanted a lot bigger say in transfer dealings. Stoke offered him that, whilst Sunderland were reluctant to break away from Kristjaan Speakman’s ‘model’. Strangely though, Alex has recently praised the methods of Brighton and Hove Albion:
“They’re now signing players for millions of pounds and sending them straight out on loan. That’s a ridiculous thing to be able to do. I think from where they were then to where they are now is a remarkable rise.
“The one key asset which has allowed them to do that is one, getting promoted and two, recruitment. [Leandro] Trossard they bought for £13m, sold him for £21m; Marc Cucurella they bought for £15m, sold him to Chelsea for more than £50m. There are so many different stories. They knocked back about £80m for Moises Caicedo, the midfield player. They’ve got players they can sell for hundreds and hundreds of millions of pounds now and they go and get players like [Jeremy] Sacramento and [Julio] Enciso from South America and Tony Bloom has obviously got algorithms for how they recruit and it’s remarkable how far they’ve risen.”
Interestingly, Brighton have a Director of Football, and they appoint head coaches instead of managers. They buy players for cheap, and look to develop and sell them for profit. They don’t give in to pressure when a player/manager lobbies for a move away (see how well they dealt with the Moises Caicedo situation). You may notice that Sunderland now operate the exact same way as Brighton, who are now an established Premier League side with an outside chance of earning European football this season.
When Tony Mowbray was named as Head Coach of Sunderland, the appointment was met with a region-wide shrug of the shoulders. He seemed like an easy appointment, an old-fashioned manager who would come in and steady the ship until the end of the season. However, since Mowbray’s arrival we haven’t really looked back at Alex Neil. The team has been a joy to watch. Up until recently, I would have had full confidence that we could welcome Alex Neil back to Sunderland, smashed his Stoke team and showed him what he could have had.
Ross Stewart’s injury (more importantly, the lack of a replacement) has meant that this game is now a whole different ordeal. Last time Stewart was injured, Mowbray was very coy in the media and argued that the team were finding ways of playing without a striker. This time though, he has openly suggested in certain games that we would have won if we’d had a number nine on the pitch. Poor Joe Gelhardt is working his socks off up front, but it’s painfully obvious that holding the ball up and bringing others into play is not his natural game. I actually think he would work very well alongside someone like Ross Stewart. To stick him up front and expect a 5 foot 9 striker to replicate the output of Stewart and Simms is just unfair on the lad.
Despite a lack of strikers, we’ve actually scored in every game in 2023. But we’ve picked up one point out of our last nine available. Just imagine where we could have been with a proper striker! We’re currently ninth in the Championship. If we’d managed to eke out just five more points over the course of the season so far, we would be on 54 points – level with Millwall and Luton, who are both in the play-off positions as things stand. Sunderland had three days when Ross Stewart went off against Fulham to find a replacement. To me, the refusal to sign a striker and the arrogance that there were ‘seven or eight players in the squad’ who could play up front was a clear indicator that the recruitment team didn’t want to go all-out for promotion this season. Perhaps sensible, as the squad clearly isn’t yet ready for Premier League football. But I believe that when the league is as tight as it has been this year, you have to grasp the opportunity when it comes. In my opinion, Speakman and co have failed to grab this opportunity with both hands, showing a real lack of short-term ambition.
Given recent results, this game now feels like one where Alex Neil could come here with a point to prove and capitalise on our poor run of form. To be honest, right now I’d probably take a draw. I really don’t want him to have the last laugh. A big change from a few weeks ago, when it seemed pretty likely that Alex Neil would be sent back to ST4 with his tail between his legs...
