THE MANAGER WHO COULD NOT WAIT TO BE SACKED
HE was the manager who wanted to be sacked. For while Gus Poyet may have vowed to fight on in the wake of Saturday’s 4-0 humiliation at home to Aston Villa, yesterday’s dismissal as head coach of Sunderland would have come as a mighty relief.
Sportsmail can reveal the Uruguayan TWICE tried to position himself for moves to other Premier League clubs after falling out with sporting director Lee Congerton. Poyet and his representatives spoke to West Ham last summer and it is understood he let his interest be known in the vacant position at Crystal Palace in December. Tellingly, the Uruguayan also advised his son Diego to sign for West Ham last July rather than join him at the Stadium of Light. Poyet has long since lost faith in his vision for Sunderland. Frustrated by the influence of Congerton in transfers, he was left with a dysfunctional team made up of players signed by both himself and the club hierarchy. Some of Poyet’s press conference outbursts distanced him from the personnel on the pitch and were not well received at boardroom level. ‘I am not going to be a head coach when it suits and a manager when it doesn’t,’ he said in December. ‘It is clear what we need to do. That is down to recruitment. So if you ever get the chance to speak to anyone on the recruitment side and ask them about it, you are lucky. If you don’t, don’t ask me.’ Such comments would not have been tolerated at other clubs and Congerton informed owner Ellis Short that Poyet was not the man to take them forward. Poyet grew particularly disillusioned during January and when he let coach Charlie Oatway take a pre-match and half-time team talk, there was a feeling he had lost interest. Subsequent team selections left players and senior figures baffled — four central midfielders named in the starting XI versus Hull, who play with wingbacks, being the most alarming example. But the players should not escape criticism, either. This is the third manager, following Martin O’Neill and Paolo Di Canio, who has been sacked with the core of the current squad on the books. They have fought relegation during the past two seasons. The squad has gone stale and so had Poyet. He did not think the players were good enough to implement the attractive football he craved. Poyet’s behaviour in the dressing-room on Saturday did little to convince the players he was scrapping for his and their survival. Poyet no longer wanted to be at the club and the key power-brokers no longer wanted him there, either. His sacking was the best outcome for all parties.