MOYES COULD KICK THE CATS
Boss hints it’s all over Craig is still up for role
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UNDER-FIRE David Moyes has dropped a strong hint he could be ready to quit as Sunderland boss at the end of the season.
But he insists public opinion won’t force him out, despite growing hostility towards him as the Black Cats’ season stumbles from one crisis to the next.
For the third game in a row he is set to be subjected to anti-Moyes chants today from a fanbase whose patience has finally snapped.
Defeat at home to Bournemouth will send Sunderland down if Hull pick up a point at Southampton
Moyes has previously given the impression that he is at the Stadium of Light for the long term but asked if he will still be in charge in August, his answer was telling.
“I would say that I would make that decision at the end of the season,” he said.
“Because, at this moment it would be the wrong time to say that.”
Ironically, Moyes is set to become the first Sunderland manager since Steve Bruce in 2011 to see out a season.
Disastrous
When he was appointed following Sam Allardyce’s resignation in late July to take over England, the club stressed their revolving door policy was over.
The former Everton and Manchester United boss signed a four-year contract and his job has never been under threat, despite this season’s disastrous results, with managing director Martin Bain desperate to bring some stability to the club.
Moyes still retains the support of his fellow Scot but clearly he has been worn down by events on and off the pitch.
Sunderland have won just five league games this term and earlier this week he was charged by the FA after threatening to slap a female TV reporter.
Moyes, however, denies that he has made a sudden U-turn regarding his future plans.
“It’s not a seismic change,” he added.
“We need to see how things are at the end of the season. I will then assess the situation.”
However bad it gets during the Bournemouth game, and even if Sunderland go down this weekend, Moyes will not walk away now.
He said: “I’m here, I’m doing the job. My focus is to make sure I win the next game.
“At the end of the season it will be the time to talk, if we are going to talk about anything.” ® CRAIG SHAKESPEARE is dead keen to be a manager – despite seeing his former bosses buried by fans.
The Leicester chief returns to West Brom today where his ex-gaffer Bobby Gould was driven out by coffin-carrying supporters.
And he saw another old Baggies boss, Brian Talbot, axed after a 4-2 FA Cup loss to part-timers Woking.
But Shakespeare says watching former managers being ground down by the job has not put him off.
“I was in the team beaten by Woking,” he said.
Wrath
“That cost Brian Talbot his job and I remember coming out of that dressing room. Wow, did we get the fans’ wrath!
“I played in Bobby Gould’s last game at Shrewsbury and he made us walk from the pre-match hotel to the ground.
“There were coffins for him being carried through the town but he stuck his chest out and walked on.”
And after taking over until the end of the season, Shakespeare insists he is loving the pressure.
“I was thrust into it but I’ve enjoyed it,” he said.
Leicester captain Wes Morgan faces a late race to be fit to face West Brom.